Rose Morat, the 101-year-old victim of a vicious mugging caught on surveillance tape last year, testified at a special videotaped hearing in a Queens courtroom yesterday. Morat will turn 102 next month and Queens prosecutors thought it would be prudent to make sure her testimony was recorded, as the actual case probably won't go to trial for another year. Morat didn't seem to take the precaution personally.
Upon taking the stand, Morat described the events of last year, when a man offered to help her with door. She said he seemed friendly and smiled, but then quickly turned after making as if to open the outer door to her building and began striking her in the face repeatedly. As she fell to the door, she clung to her bag containing $23 dollars, which the mugger finally wrenched away from her. She testified, "I thought he was going to open the door, but then he hit me... Blood gushed out of my mouth...I thought, oh my God. I've been mugged."
Jack Rhodes is the 45-year-old man accused of robbing and beating Rose Morat while posing as a helpful neighbor. Asked if she could identify the man who attacked her, Morat had some trouble, eventually asking if Rhodes would smile for her, as his false friendlieness was the most salient thing she remembered before being struck. Her ID was tentative and may be Rhodes' best chance at exoneration. Morat also suspected another person in the courtroom could have been the man who attacked her, but that was actually a reporter for the New York Post - and a woman. Prosecutors believe the security video more than makes up for the shaky identification.
The March 2007 attack of Morat and another elderly woman soon thereafter outraged the city and galvanized it in finding their attacker. Crimestoppers received thousands of tips as to who the culprit may have been. People loved Morat, however, who seemed undiminished despite her injuries. She met with Mayor Bloomberg to give him a piece of her mind on city governance.
