William Hathaway

Introduction

William Hathaway is a Connecticut-raised man convicted at trial of raping a woman he met on Tinder after a date at Manhattan’s SoHo House — and is now facing her federal civil lawsuit after a judge spared him prison. A New York state Supreme Court jury found Hathaway guilty of Rape in the Third Degree on April 24, 2025, for the February 2020 attack in his West Village apartment. Yet at his August 2025 sentencing, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Josh Hanshaft handed down 10 years of probation and sex-offender registration instead of the four-year prison term prosecutors sought, a sentence the victim — who has now identified herself publicly — calls a “slap in the face.” She is hauling him back to court, this time in federal court, as a civil defendant.

Background Information

Hathaway grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, and by the time of his sentencing was living in Miami, Florida. He was 27 when he connected with the victim — then a 23-year-old aspiring fashion designer new to New York City — through Tinder in February 2020, exchanging messages for a few days before agreeing to meet at the swanky members-only SoHo House club in the Meatpacking District on February 15, 2020. After the date, she went back with him to his West Village apartment, where the encounter turned criminal, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Hathaway was 33 at his April 2025 conviction and 34 when the victim’s civil suit made headlines in October 2026.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Hathaway’s conviction on one count of Rape in the Third Degree — a class E felony — was returned by a jury at trial on April 24, 2025, and is a matter of court record; he maintains his innocence on that count and is appealing the verdict. He was previously charged with a similar sex attack in the summer of 2020 and was acquitted at an October 2023 trial, according to sources who spoke to the New York Post; that sealed case is not a conviction, and any conduct connected to it remains an unproven allegation.

Prosecutors’ account of the February 15, 2020 attack, as proven at trial: after the two began having consensual sexual intercourse at his apartment, the woman decided to stop — and said so. She “clearly expressed that she did not consent, repeating ‘stop’ at least five times, and pushing on his chest, while he raped her without a condom,” the Manhattan DA’s Office said. At trial, Assistant DA Ashley Durkin argued Hathaway believed he was “entitled to sex” with the victim because he had met her on Tinder, an app she said carries a reputation as a “hook up” service. “There is a reason the term ‘date rape’ exists in our lexicon,” Durkin told the court. “To not sentence this defendant to a period of incarceration for his conduct would be adhering the outdated concept that there needs to be some form of violence or force to constitute rape.” District Attorney Alvin Bragg, announcing the conviction, said: “This conviction makes clear that initial consent is not a blank check for rape. This survivor clearly said stop again and again, but the defendant did not.”

Hathaway’s defense, mounted by attorney Aida Leisenring, claimed the victim had withdrawn her consent “approximately one minute” before the encounter ended, and asked that he not be sent to prison. Hathaway told the court he was simply trying to have a “fun date,” apologized to the victim, and added, “Since my arrest, I’ve tried to respond to this experience in ways that reflect loyalty and responsibility. I now date with the intention of long term relationships.” The jury did not accept the defense’s account. At the August 19, 2025 sentencing, prosecutors pushed for the maximum four years behind bars; Justice Hanshaft instead imposed 10 years of probation, a sex offender treatment program, and sex-offender registration. The judge seemed himself uncertain: “I’m not sure if this sentence is what’s the right answer or should you be sitting in a jail cell for a while to get a sense of what incarceration is about,” he told Hathaway — while insisting he took consent seriously: “I don’t treat this as an outdated theory, that no doesn’t mean no — no means no… The law now is when someone says no and you don’t stop, that’s rape. And that’s where we are.” He closed: “You caused pain. You caused deep emotional pain. Don’t ever let that happen again. Ever.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The probation sentence landed, in the New York Post’s words, as a shock to “legal observers and sexual assault advocates alike” — a jury conviction for rape that ended with no prison time at all. The victim, who waived anonymity to speak on record to the Post in October 2026, described the aftermath: “It was a slap in the face,” she said of the sentencing. “I wasn’t taken very seriously, and … this type of case isn’t taken very seriously… I am happy he was convicted, but it just seems like such a light sentence for what he did to me.” She said she still lives in fear — “Walking outside and day-to-day activities, I’m always looking over my shoulder” — and that the no-prison outcome compounded everything: “It’s just hard to trust in the justice system now… He got off pretty easy… the system needs to change.” At his own sentencing she had told the court: “That night he took my control. He took away my voice, he took away my dignity… He took away a part of me that I can never have back.”

Current Status

The victim’s federal civil suit against Hathaway, filed more than a year after the sentencing, seeks damages for battery, assault and emotional distress, and demands a restraining order — her attempt, as she frames it, “to hold my attacker accountable” and to gain “more control in my life after it was taken away.” Hathaway, who lives in Florida, could not be reached for comment on the suit, according to the New York Post. He remains a registered sex offender serving a 10-year probation term with mandatory sex-offender treatment, and has said he will appeal the rape conviction. The civil action is unresolved — no judgment or settlement has been reported — and the acquittal in the separate, sealed 2023 trial stands as the final word on that charge.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Hathaway’s life is now structured around the consequences of a conviction he continues to fight: a decade of supervised probation, court-mandated sex-offender treatment, registration as a sex offender, and a federal civil suit whose damages exposure is uncapped. The sentencing transformed him from a private defendant into the face of a judicial-leniency controversy covered nationally — the judge who spared him prison, Josh Hanshaft, drew his own share of the scrutiny. His apology and courtroom pledge to become “a good boyfriend, a good husband, a good father one day” now sit permanently beside the jury verdict and the victim’s public account of the attack in every search of his name. Whatever the appeal and the civil suit produce, the conviction — and the sentence that shocked New York — are the recorded facts of his case.

Sources

• New York Post, “Tinder date rape victim drags attacker to court after ‘slap in the face’ sentence,” October 28, 2026 — source
• Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, “D.A. Bragg: William Hathaway Convicted At Trial Of West Village Apartment Rape Following Soho House Date,” April 24, 2025 — source
• New York Post, “Convicted rapist who assaulted Tinder date after SoHo House date skates with just probation thanks to lenient NYC judge,” August 19, 2025 — source