Man accused of strangling his Tinder date seeks to have charge dropped

STAMFORD — A former New Yorker accused of strangling a Stamford woman he met through a popular dating app has applied for a program that could see a felony charge against him dropped.

On Thursday, Socrates Alicea, 33, applied for accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial probationary program that — if completed successfully — would lead to the first-degree strangulation charge he is facing being dropped by the state.

Alicea’s application, however, will face some opposition.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes said the state will formally object to Alicea’s application being granted. He cited the seriousness of the crime, the resulting felony charge and yet-to-be-discussed facts in the case as factors in the state’s objection.

“This is a Class C felony, so, Your Honor will have to find good cause to grant this application, and there is a lot more information that both counsel and myself have to relay to Your Honor,” Valdes said.

Instead of discussing these revelations in public, Valdes asked to hold an “off-the-record” pretrial discussion with Alicea’s attorney, Christine Landis, and Judge Gary White to go over certain case facts “so that a lot of this information does not go onto the record to embarrass the victim and the defendant.”

“It’s relevant to Your Honor’s decision, but I don’t think it’s relevant to the public,” he said.

Landis and White agreed to the pretrial discussion behind closed doors.

Alicea is accused of strangling a woman he had just met until she lost consciousness during a sexual encounter the two had arranged over Tinder on Nov. 9, 2019.

Police said at the time that the victim awoke with blood in her mouth, bruising on her neck and Alicea nowhere to be found. What she did find, though, was a phone and a single sock that police used to trace the incident back to Alicea, who then lived in Kingston, N.Y.

Alicea, who now lives in Edgecomb, Maine, claims he went to the hotel that night for a massage. But, he told police, he backed out of paying for it while the two were having sex, causing the woman to get angry and begin screaming at him.

He said he grabbed his clothes and ran out of the room, leaving his cellphone behind, according to police.

Alicea is next scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on April 29, when a decision on the application is expected.