Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli this afternoon confirmed that detectives from his office and city police arrested 24-year-old Darion Benbow on Friday.
Molinelli said Benbow picked up the girl at the Rochelle Park Shop Rite earlier that day and brought her to his Clinton Place apartment, where he gave her alcohol and then had “sexual activity with her against her will.”
The girl called a friend and left, then both told a Hackensack police officer what happened, the prosecutor said.
Hackensack police brought the girl to headquarters, and the SVU was contacted, he said.
“The victim was subsequently interviewed by a detective from that unit and the Hackensack Police Department, at which time she provided specific details as to what had occurred at [Benbow’s] residence,” Molinelli said.
They then arrested him.
The 6-foot-7-inch, 170-pound Benbow — a former honors students at St. Raymond High School for Boys in Bronx — played small forward for Lafayette University in Pennsylvania from 2007-2011. He averaged just under five points and three rebounds a game his senior year at the school, which only began offering athletic scholarships a year before he applied.
At St. Ray’s, he averaged 10 points and seven rebounds a game playing center his senior year.
Benbow was being held on $400,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with sexual assault, kidnapping and child endangerment. He also was issued a summons for giving alcohol to a minor.
An arraignment was scheduled tomorrow.
