DA warns convicted rapist Christopher Block may reoffend in Onondaga County

Onondaga County prosecutors are warning that Christopher Block, the Syracuse man convicted of kidnapping and raping two women nearly 42 years ago, remains a public-safety risk now that he has been released again. District Attorney William Fitzpatrick says the case shows how little control remains once a prison term ends, beyond state supervision, electronic monitoring and registration rules.

Block was 25 when, on Jan. 13, 1984, he forced two women at knifepoint from Garfield’s Restaurant on West Genesee Street in Syracuse and raped them. A September 1984 conviction brought back-to-back maximum sentences of 48 to 96 years, a term later described locally as a 50-year sentence, and he was denied parole in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 before first being paroled on Dec. 26, 2018, after serving 34 years.

His supervision history has been troubled. In July 2019, while on parole, Block cut off his ankle monitor and hid for about 35 hours in wooded land near the Skaneateles Country Club before police found him. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision called him “extremely dangerous” in its alert at the time, and he was sent back to prison after pleading guilty to the violation. He was released again in July 2021.

Court and parole problems followed again in 2022, when Block was accused of drug use, tampering with his GPS monitor and harassing another person, and he was held at the Justice Center. He left prison again in August 2023. Fitzpatrick has said Block is not rehabilitatable, and the district attorney’s office says he remains under community supervision until June 2034.

The remaining safeguards are state-run, not county-run. New York’s sex-offender registry publicly lists Level 2 and Level 3 offenders, while Level 1 records require more limited access, and Block must register with law enforcement where he lives. Fitzpatrick’s warning underscores the gap between the end of a prison sentence and the state’s ability to keep track of someone who has repeatedly violated supervision, a gap exposed when Block cut off monitors and disappeared into rural cover near Skaneateles.