Amit Singh acquitted of rape, guilty of third-degree sex abuse, child endangerment

A Nassau County jury acquitted former fugitive Amit Singh of rape charges Thursday but convicted him of two misdemeanors after a trial in which authorities alleged he had raped a 14-year-old in Elmont as she headed to school in 2009.

Jurors convicted Singh, 33, of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Defense attorney Dennis Lemke had conceded his client's guilt on those charges in his opening statement last week.

"It was a long road and the system worked," Lemke said after the verdict, calling the panel of 12 jurors "a smart jury who evaluated the evidence."

The Nassau district attorney's office declined to comment on the verdict. It included an acquittal on a first-degree sexual abuse charge. Singh spent years as a fugitive before his extradition from India.

The victim, now 20 and living in Trinidad, had testified that Singh forced her into his home and raped her in a bedroom before driving her to school. She said she couldn't escape his grip in the street, but that she didn't scream or kick him then to try to get away.

Lemke told jurors that Singh and the witness flirted and touched each other that day but never had intercourse -- and that her physical exam didn't show injuries consistent with forced sex. Assistant District Attorney Melissa Scannell had told jurors that the attack "irreparably changed" the life of the teen, who reported what happened to a teacher later that day.

She said a DNA sample found on the victim was a match to Singh.

Singh's attorney said he's due for sentencing in January. He said Singh, who had faced up to 25 years in prison if found guilty of the top charge, now faces a sentence of up to a year in jail on the top count of the conviction.

But Lemke said Singh also faces a violation of probation case and could get a maximum of 21/3 to 7 years in prison in that case.