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Halloween sex assault suspect extradited to New York
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSNEW YORK (CNN) -- A man suspected of posing as a firefighter in order to gain entrance to a woman's home where he sexually assaulted her arrived in New York Monday evening after waiving extradition from Tennessee earlier in the day. Peter Braunstein, a 41-year-old freelance writer, is expected to appear in a Manhattan court Tuesday. He is suspected in the Halloween assault, which lasted for 12 hours, police said. Braunstein will be charged with kidnapping, sexual abuse, robbery and burglary, said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Braunstein led police on a cross-country chase that ended Thursday in Memphis, where he stabbed himself in the neck when police at the University of Memphis confronted him after a university employee recognized him and alerted police. Memphis police took custody of the suspect Saturday after he spent two days at Memphis' Regional Medical Center for treatment of his wound. They charged him with aggravated assault and carrying a weapon on school property with the "intent to harm." The Memphis judge dropped those charges Monday, paving the way for the extradition. "We felt the charges in New York were much more serious and they are anxious to get him up in New York," said Jennifer Donnalf, communications director for the Shelby County district attorney. New York City officials had been following Braunstein's movements across the country, first to Cleveland and then Tennessee, since Nov. 2, when he left town. The New York Police Department said that, based on an America's Most Wanted tip obtained Dec. 12, they determined that Braunstein had donated blood at Tennessee Blood Services in Memphis on Nov. 28 after identifying himself as a freelance writer. Braunstein, who received $20 for his blood donation, told workers that he needed money to get to Kansas. 
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