A Georgia man was arrested and charged with raping five women in Southeast Queens during the 1990s after DNA from a discarded cup matched decades-old crime scene evidence, authorities said.

Michael Benjamin, 57, of Conyers, Georgia, was arraigned Thursday on 17 charges, including five counts of first-degree rape, following his extradition from Georgia on Wednesday, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.

Officials described the attacks as “heinous” and said Benjamin forced his way into victims’ homes.

He pleaded not guilty and his attorney denied the allegations, saying it was unfair to be indicted after so many years.

The cold case breakthrough came in 2024, when investigators matched his fingerprints to the crime, police said. The NYPD then obtained DNA from a cup Benjamin used at the Rockdale County Sheriff’s office in Georgia. The sample matched DNA collected from victims during attacks between 1995 and 1997 in Jamaica, St. Albans, Laurelton and Brookville, according to prosecutors.

“After several decades, this defendant will finally face charges of violently raping at least five women, some at gunpoint,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said. “It is never too late for justice.”

Prosecutors had pre-indicted an unknown “John Doe” in 2005 based on the DNA evidence, a legal maneuver that prevented the statute of limitations from expiring while the suspect remained unidentified.

Benjamin’s lawyer, Joseph Amsel, called this tactic unfair.

“There’s a reason there is a statute of limitations, it’s not a technicality, it is grounded in fairness,” he said. “ It is fundamentally unfair to require somebody to defend themselves against the charge going back 30 years ago for which they have absolutely no recollection.”

According to the indictment, the attacks began July 24, 1995, when Benjamin broke into a woman’s home through a window while she slept, pulled a sheet over her head, tied her up and raped her before stealing cash and jewelry. A year later, on Aug. 24, 1996, he broke into another woman’s home, placed a jacket over her head and raped her, prosecutors said.

The violence escalated in September 1996 when Benjamin allegedly approached a woman as she walked to her front door, forcing her inside at gunpoint and threatening to kill her husband and child, who were home, if she didn’t comply with his demands, authorities said. He raped the victim before fleeing with cash, Katz’s office said.

In what’s believed to be the final attack on Feb. 8, 1997, Benjamin broke into a home holding a gun and raped two women before escaping with cash and jewelry, prosecutors said.

Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris ordered Benjamin held without bail. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the top charges and is due back in court Dec. 5.