Acra man found guilty of raping ‘intimate partner’ in Rensselaerville

ALBANY COUNTY — Henry Manigault was found guilty by a jury on Dec. 1 for the rape of his former “intimate partner” in Medusa in 2013, with Judge Peter Lynch presiding in Albany County Court, according to a release from the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

Manigault, 40, physically assaulted, raped, and repeatedly strangled his intimate partner, the release says.

The incident occurred on Nov. 7, 2013, at the victim’s home on Route 351, and then was reported to State Police, who arrested him on Nov. 8., according to Cecilia Walsh, spokeswoman for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

All of the charges are felonies and include three counts for second-degree strangulation and one count each of third-degree assault, second-degree imprisonment, and third-degree rape.

At his sentencing on Jan. 26, Manigault will face seven years in prison.

Currently in Albany County’s jail, Manigault is from Acra, a small town about five miles west of Cairo in Greene County.

He was found “not guilty” on two counts of forcible sexual contact, said Manigault’s attorney, Gaspar Castillo, which stemmed from forced anal sex reported by the victim as happening the month before.

According to Castillo, Manigault and the victim were living together in Medusa, trying to avoid the “circle of people that were involed with drugs” through which they had met when Manigault was living in the Catskill area. Manigault acknowledges they had arguments on the two dates that the victim reported she felt forced to have sex, to avoid being beaten by Manigault, Castillo said, but he maintains that any sexual contact was consensual and voluntary.

The prosecution used hospital records documenting physical injury, photographs, the victim’s testimony, and police testimony in the trial, Walsh said.