Currently facing sex abuse charges, a Howard Beach man allegedly confronted his 15-year-old female victim on a Glendale street this month and tried to coerce her into dropping the charges, prosecutors said.
Michael Albertsen, 51, of Howard Beach was arrested on Aug. 5 by the NYPD Queens Special Victims Squad for allegedly sexually abusing the victim multiple times between Dec. 4, 2011, and Dec. 2, 2013, at an undisclosed location in south Queens. He was subsequently released on $75,000 bail.
Law enforcement sources said Albertsen and the victim, who was 11 years old at the time of the first assault, were known to each other, but declined to disclose their actual relationship.
Between 8 and 9 a.m. on Sept. 14, according to the criminal complaint that the Queens District Attorney’s office provided, the victim was walking through Glendale on her way to school when Albertsen, while behind the wheel of a vehicle, allegedly pulled up alongside her and told her to get in.
The girl began screaming but Albertsen opened the door and repeated his demand that she get inside; the victim complied with his request, and the suspect drove away.
For the next 10 minutes, prosecutors said, Albertsen drove through the area and ordered the victim to write a letter stating that nothing ever happened, and that police and prosecutors coerced her into filing charges against him.
Albertsen went on to tell the victim that he would have her mother arrested and deported if the victim failed to write the letter; he claimed that he had friends who are police officers and lawyers who would assist him.
The criminal complaint also noted that Albertsen allegedly told the victim that he “wants to be a family again” and said he would provide her with a gun if she didn’t feel safe being around him.
Although the victim cried and said she wanted to leave the vehicle, Albertsen refused to let her out. Moments later, she managed to exit the vehicle and flee on foot.
Following an investigation by the 104th Precinct Detective Squad, Albertsen was arrested on Sept. 20 and charged with unlawful imprisonment, coercion, tampering with a witness, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order against him. He remains held on $50,000 bond and is due back in court on Oct. 14.
