School safety officer allegedly raped 14-year-old girl

A school safety officer at Springfield Gardens High School has been charged with the attempted rape and sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl during a six-week period earlier this year.
“The defendant is alleged to have betrayed his position of trust at a Queens high school by taking advantage of a young student,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “The defendant’s alleged conduct is not simply a violation of law but of society’s innate code of ethics. Parents should never have to be concerned or worried about their children’s well-being when in school.”
The defendant, Robert K. Smith, 33, of 1426 Loring Avenue in Brooklyn, is being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens on charges of a second-degree criminal sexual act, second-degree attempted rape, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual abuse.
If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
According to the charges, the defendant approached the victim on or about May 1 and kissed her in a stairwell of Springfield Gardens High School, which is located at 143-10 Springfield Boulevard.
On two occasions thereafter, Smith allegedly took the student to rooms in the school basement where he sexually abused her. Finally, it is alleged that on the afternoon of June 13, the defendant drove around the corner from the school with the student in his car, at which point he got into the backseat with the student and sexually abused her and attempted to rape her.
The unidentified victim’s mother alerted police to the alleged assault.
“My husband might be a lot of things, but it has to be some kind of mistake,” said Smith’s wife in published reports. “I pick him up and drop him off every day. There’s no way in the world. Nobody’s relationship is perfect,but I can’t see that.”