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

A Hudson Valley woman is off to prison after she broke into her ex-boyfriend's hotel room and assaulted a sleeping woman.

On Thursday, Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced Justina Ferguson, 46, of Middletown was sentenced in Orange County Court to seven years in state prison, and three years post-release supervision, in connection with an assault on her former boyfriend and a woman in a Wallkill hotel room.

“This defendant clearly deserved a meaningful state prison sentence for brazenly assaulting a helpless sleeping woman with a weapon, and for lying to hotel staff to get access to her former boyfriend’s room,” Hoovler said. “Her actions were clearly premeditated, as is evidenced by the fact that the perpetrators recorded the assault. 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.”

On November 24, 2021, Ferguson pleaded guilty to assault in the Second Degree.

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.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the New York State Police for their investigation and the arrest of the defendant.