Old Forge camping resort guard gets 18 years in prison for raping CNY woman
HERKIMER, N.Y. March 29 2019 — A former security guard will serve close to two decades behind bars for raping a woman at a popular Old Forge camping resort in 2016.
Erik G. Kenney, 46, of Floyd, was sentenced Thursday morning to serve 18 years in prison, Herkimer County District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter’s office announced in a news release.
Herkimer County Court Judge John Crandall Sr. also ordered Kenney to serve 10 years of post-release supervision when he gets out of prison, the DA said.
Kenney lured a Fulton woman into a cottage at the Old Forge Camping Resort on Aug. 2, 2016, and raped her.
At the time of the attack, Kenney was working as a security guard, patrolling the Old Forge campgrounds and Enchanted Forest Water Safari amusement park. He was 44. The woman he raped was 19.
A jury took three hours to find Kenney guilty of first-degree rape last month after a four-day trial.
After the woman’s testimony, a jury took three hours to find guard Erik Kenney guilty of rape. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
The woman Kenney attacked said she was pleased with the sentence. She shared with Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard the statement she read in court today.
In the statement, the woman told Kenney how the attack has haunted her family — and how, during the rape, he took away her control of her own body.
“I felt like I was no longer my own person. I didn’t have power over my own body. I didn’t have the option to decide what happened with my body,” she said. “It didn’t matter to you whether I said yes or no because you weren’t looking for consent. You were looking to take what you wanted. Me telling you I did not want to have sex with you wasn’t enough to make you stop and neither was the obvious terrified look on my face.”
She also explained how the attack changed how she views the world.
“I used to be someone who was big on forgiveness. I believed you should always forgive someone who does something wrong to you so that you can let go of any pain that they have caused you,” she said. “Being raped showed me that some things are just unforgivable and some pain you will never be able to let go of.”
Kenney worked for the Old Forge Camping Resort in the summer of 2016, company officials said in a statement Wednesday. He was immediately fired after officials learned he had been accused of rape, the company said.
Kenney’s family has said he is innocent and created a GoFundMe page to raise money to hire a lawyer for him.
His wife posted a link on Facebook Tuesday asking Stryper, a Christian metal band, for help. In a post to the band, she said Kenney had been “falsely accused, charged and incarcerated for rape.”
The fundraiser has been taken down.
Sarycuse.com
