A creep accused of snatching a 4-year-old from a Long Island laundromat outlandishly claimed he brought her to the library for help finding her parents but the language barrier led to a misunderstanding about his intentions, his attorney said Sunday.
Carlos Corte, 38, was freed Sunday on supervised release with a GPS monitor on a second-degree kidnapping charge stemming from the bizarre incident in which he led the young girl from a Patchogue laundromat while she was there with her mother.
“Your honor my client has had zero interaction with law enforcement. We’re asking for a release on his own recognizance. He thought the girl lived alone without parents,” Suffolk County legal aid attorney Alexandra Dyroff said at Corte’s arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip through an interpreter.
“He took her to the library and told an employee there as such but there was a language barrier. It seems to be a mistake.”
Prosecutors had been seeking a $150,000 cash bail, $300,000 bond or a $1.5 million partially secured bond.
“He took a 4-year-old girl from King Laundry where she had been with her mother doing laundry. The defendant made an oral admission, quote, ‘I made a mistake when I took the girl,’” Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Evan Ryan said in court, also through an interpreter.
“He brought the 4-year-old girl to another location and made admissions as such.”
Corte was in court for a second unrelated charge stemming from a warrant out of the Village Court of Patchogue. Judge James F. Leonick ordered him to appear in court for the other case on April 16.