A 72-year-old Villager has been sentenced in the sexual assault of an autistic man in a Publix parking lot in The Villages.
Edmund Peter Rossy of the Village of El Cortez was arrested Jan. 28, 2016 by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies after approaching the victim Jan. 19, 2016 in the parking lot of Publix at Spanish Plaines Plaza.
The victim said an older man lured him into the car, proceeded through the parking lot and parked the vehicle. After parking the vehicle, the man began to rub the victim’s shoulders. The victim explained the male then grabbed and rubbed his genitals through his pants. The victim asked the man to stop, but the male continued, and at some point, the male put his mouth to the victim’s genitals – this was also through his pants. The victim then informed the deputy the man eventually stopped touching him, but then exposed his penis. The victim was eventually able to get out of the vehicle and ran into the store. The victim said he did not know the suspect.
The victim was at The Villages Regional Hospital when the sheriff’s office was summoned. The victim’s father informed a deputy that the victim has been diagnosed with Autism and has the mental capacity of a sixth-grader.Â
Rossy’s vehicle was captured on video surveillance. Detectives were able to use law enforcement databases to identify him.
Rossy entered a plea of no contest to a charge of kidnapping on June 5 in Sumter County Court. In exchange, charges of lewd and lascivious molestation and battery were dismissed.
Rossy has been sentenced to 10 years probation and two years of community control.
Rossy had been arrested in 1989 by the Drug Enforcement Agency on a cocaine charge in New York. While serving time in prison in 1992, he reportedly attempted to import cocaine into the facility.
