Hudson Valley, New York Woman Films ‘Monkey-Fist’ Assault of Sleeping Woman

A Hudson Valley woman broke into her ex-boyfriend's hotel room and assaulted a sleeping woman.

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Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced Justina Ferguson, 46, of Middletown, pleaded guilty before Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown to assault in the Second Degree in connection with an assault on her former boyfriend and a woman in a Wallkill hotel room.

Prosecutors alleged that on August 15, 2020, at about 1:00 a.m., Ferguson, who was accompanied by others, tricked hotel staff into giving her room information and a key to the room where her former boyfriend was staying.

An Orange County Grand Jury had charged Ferguson with assaulting her former boyfriend and a woman who was sleeping in the room.

At the time that Ferguson pleaded guilty, she admitted to entering her former boyfriend’s room and assaulting the woman with a weapon made up of a knotted rope containing a weight.

The assault was recorded by one of the individuals who had accompanied Ferguson to the room. The weapon, which is commonly called a “monkey-fist,” is designed to be used as a flail. The woman suffered a serious head wound resulting from the attack.

Ferguson faces up to seven years in State Prison and three years post-release supervision. She will be sentenced on February 17, 2022.

“This defendant’s actions in lying to hotel staff to get access to her former boyfriend’s room and bringing a weapon, which she used to brazenly assault a helpless sleeping woman, were clearly premeditated, and it is likely that the recording of the assault was also planned,” Hoovler said. “We may never know exactly what the defendant planned on doing with the recording of this heinous assault, but recording victims as they are assaulted, whether to keep as trophies, or to share with others, significantly revictimizes those who are entitled to our sympathy and support.”