Susan Edelman and Erin Calabrese
The New York Post
NEW YORK — An elite FDNY paramedic picked to be on hand when the president or other dignitaries are in town will escape jail time under a plea deal on charges he raped a drunken 15-year-old girl he had offered to help “sober up,” The Post has learned
Joel Pierce, 42, was busted on felony rape charges in January 2010 after he found the teen in the lobby of their Great Neck, LI, apartment building after midnight.
The off-duty EMT offered, “Why don’t you sober up in my apartment?” prosecutors said.
The girl knew Pierce as a high-ranking member of the volunteer Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company.
“She would see him in uniform in the building,” an official said.
Instead of helping, an indictment alleged, Pierce engaged in sex acts with the underage girl.
The girl and her family have moved from the building and tried to put the horror behind them, her mom said yesterday.
“It was terrible,” she told The Post. “My daughter was 15 at the time, so it was hurtful. He was a fireman. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
The FDNY veteran pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. He will be sentenced on June 30 to three years’ probation.
His attorney, Adrienne Hausch, said Pierce will not comment. Of the alleged rape, the lawyer said, “If anything occurred, it certainly was not against her will.”
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