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Suspect arrested in 101-year-old woman's mugging

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NEW YORK (AP) -- She was brutally mugged in a crime that outraged New Yorkers, but the 101-year-old victim said the attack hasn't intimidated her.

"I'm not fearful at all," Rose Morat said Friday as police made an arrest in the case. "Whatever is going to happen is going to happen."

Jack Rhodes, 44, was arrested on charges of robbery, grand larceny, burglary and assault, police said. They did not have an address for Rhodes, who was also accused of robbing an 85-year-old woman the same day Morat was attacked, police said.

"I am so sorry for what happened," Rhodes said as he was led out of a police station, the New York Post reported Saturday.

Police began questioning Rhodes after noticing he matched a photo of a person wanted for questioning in robberies of women in Queens. He was initially held on a charge of possession of a crack pipe.

There was no telephone listing for Rhodes in the New York metropolitan area, and police did not know whether he was represented by a lawyer.

"If it's the right man, it's wonderful," Morat told The Associated Press when reached Friday by phone.

Morat's March 4 holdup was captured on a surveillance tape. It shows Morat, who was using a walker, trying to leave her apartment building to go to church.

The mugger, who looms over her and is holding onto a bicycle, pretends to help her get through the vestibule. Then he turns to grab Morat's head, delivers three hard punches to her face and swipes her purse. The dazed victim tries to reach for her purse when the mugger hits her again, pushing her and her walker to the ground.

He got away with $33 and Morat's house keys. She suffered a fractured cheekbone and spent time in the hospital.

Morat told the AP on Friday that she's feeling better, though her doctor has told her to try to slow down.

She previously declared that if she'd been just a bit younger, she'd have gone after the guy.

The Glenridge senior center in Ridgewood, Queens, fielded a flurry of calls after the crime and said it was bringing back self-defense courses for the elderly.

The NYPD assigned dozens of detectives to the case and showed the surveillance video to every uniformed officer in the city.

The state Senate's Republican majority proposed tougher penalties for assaulting an elderly person.

The bill, offered by Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn, would make a felony of assaulting anyone more than 70 years old. Currently, the crime is a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in jail.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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