Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III announces that 36 year-old Barry Hollis of 4700 Porter Avenue in the City of Niagara Falls pleaded guilty as charged to Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and Rape in the Second Degree before Erie County Judge Thomas Franczyk. These are the highest charges for which the defendant could have been convicted had he been indicted and gone to trial. In other words, Hollis did not receive a so-called plea bargain and was instead prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The convictions stem from two separate incidents.

On June 22, 2014, Hollis sexually abused an eight year-old girl on a ride at Fantasy Island Amusement Park. While the ride was in motion, Hollis stuck his hand down the underwear of the victim and fondled her vagina. The victim immediately reported the abuse to her father and amusement park employees, who in turn, immediately summoned the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, who tracked down Hollis and arrested him.

Principally because of media attention generated by the foregoing crime, a second victim came forward leading to evidence that Hollis, posing as a 17 year-old boy and over the course of nine months, developed a relationship with a 14 year-old girl, culminating in her rape in a secluded section of Woodlawn Beach in the Town Hamburg during the Summer of 2013. Hollis has also posed as “Brianna Hollis,” portraying her as his (fictitious) 11 year-daughter in an apparent effort to garner sympathy and raise bail money.

Hollis was remanded into custody and faces a maximum of fourteen years in state prison when he is sentenced on November 17, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. before Judge Franczyk.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Lynette Reda and Liam Dwyer, both of whom are assigned to DA Sedita’s Special Victims Bureau. DA Sedita also lauded the police investigation, spearheaded by Erie County Sheriff’s Detective Daniel Brinkerhoff, noting, “because of the diligence and professionalism of the police/prosecution team, a sexual predator has been brought to justice.”