Quid Blow Quo

A former police colleague of New York City Mayor Eric Adams claims in a bombshell new lawsuit alleging sexual assault that he exposed himself to her and demanded she perform oral sex on him in exchange for help with a job issue more than three decades ago.

The accuser, Lorna Beach-Mathura, first came forward in November by filing a notice of claim saying she planned to sue Adams for sexual assault. The brief November filing didn’t include specifics about the accusation.

 

NY Daily News

In response to the newly filed lawsuit, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, the city government’s corporation counsel who’s representing Adams in the sexual assault case, said the mayor vehemently denies Beach-Mathura’s accusations.

“While we review the complaint, the mayor fully denies these outrageous allegations and the events described here; we expect full vindication in court,” Hinds-Radix said in a statement.

The suit, filed Monday afternoon in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges the incident took place in 1993, when Beach-Mathura and Adams both worked for the city Transit Police Department.

In addition to being a transit cop, Adams was at the time a top official for the Guardians Association, a Black police officers’ organization. Beach-Mathura, who was also a Guardians member, alleges Adams picked her up in his car after work in Manhattan and brought her to a vacant lot near the Hudson River after he had agreed to meet with her to talk about helping her get a promotion in the Transit Police Department.

Beach-Mathura said she went to Adams with the employment issue because she found him “inspiring” and thought he could help in his capacity as a Guardians leader. She alleges she first got to know Adams from working with him years earlier.

Initially, Beach-Mathura alleges in the lawsuit Adams was going to pick her up and give her a ride home to Coney Island to talk. Once in the car, she realized instead that he was headed to an area near the Hudson River, which made her “nervous and scared,” the lawsuit says.

Once in the empty lot, Beach-Mathura alleges Adams asked her to explain her employment issue. After she did, “Adams told Plaintiff that he thought he could help her but that he ‘also needed some help’ and began rubbing his penis through his clothes with his hand,” according to the lawsuit.

Adams then told her he wanted oral sex from her in exchange for his help, the court paper says. The lawsuit says “while repeatedly cajoling, demanding, and begging Plaintiff for oral sex, Defendant Adams unzipped his pants” and exposed himself.

Beach-Mathura alleges she “repeatedly and adamantly refused” Adams’ overtures. The suit claims Adams then “assaulted” Beach-Mathura “by grabbing her hand and placing it on his exposed” genitals and told her to masturbate him.

Beach-Mathura alleges she again refused, repeatedly saying, “No,” and trying to pull her hand away. Beach-Mathura “feared that she would be raped” by Adams, but “tried to remain calm,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Plaintiff was frightened not only due to Defendant Adams’ appalling conduct, but also because she knew that he, as a police officer, had at least one loaded gun in the car,” her lawsuit charges.

Beach-Mathura claims that after several more attempts, Adams stopped trying to talk her into a sex act, and instead started masturbating. Court papers say semen from Adams landed on Beach-Mathura’s thigh and stocking.

After the alleged assault, Beach-Mathura claims in the suit that Adams told her he needed to get back to work. He then drove her to the Chambers St. subway station in Manhattan where he dropped her off, according to the suit.

She alleges Adams never helped her with the employment issue. She left city government in 1994 and currently lives in Florida, where she has worked as a public school teacher.

Beach-Mathura claims she told “numerous people” about the alleged assault, including current and former NYPD officials as well as her two daughters, according to the suit.

She said she never formally reported the incident out of fear of retaliation from Adams, the Guardians or the NYPD, all of whom are named as defendants in her lawsuit. In addition to accusing Adams of sexual assault and battery, Beach-Mathura’s suit says the Guardians and the NYPD violated anti-gender violence laws by having “enabled” his alleged behavior.

The NYPD and the Guardians did not immediately return requests for comment on Beach-Mathura’s suit, which is seeking $5 million in damages.

 

Teenage girl sexually harrassed and assaulted twice walking by Ozone Park homeless shelter

 

 

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

1:00 PM

Laurel Hall Shelter

85-15 101 Ave

Ozone Park NY 11416

Provider-Lantern

Agency-DHS

Owner-Asher Shafran/Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Do we wait for someone to get raped before anyone will listen to us?

On July 18, 2023, a 17-year-old girl, a minor, was sexually harassed and terrified by clients of DHS/Lantern living in the Laurel Hall Shelter. We approached Lantern and asked for a meeting to resolve this situation. A meeting was set for Tuesday, August 8, 2023, with Senator Addabbo, Community Board # 9 District Manager James McClelland, the NYPD 102 Pct Captain Kivlin with community affairs, and the parent of the 17-year-old and Lantern. Ironically, the night before the meeting, August 7, 2023, the same girl was sexually harassed; this time, a police report was filed with the 102 PCT. When we arrived Tuesday, Lantern refused to meet with us after knowing that this meeting was set up for almost ten days, slamming the door in our faces and refusing to even talk to the Senator. Their excuse was DHS told them not to meet with us. UNACCEPTABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL. Total disregard for our Ozone Park community.

 

We are holding a press conference with the parent of the 17-year-old girl to put a face to the problem and show this administration that these are real people being affected by mismanaged providers who have no regard for our community. We have had a very cordial relationship with the past management of Lantern, but the new administration has proven to be ineffective in working with our community and keeping our residents safe. If this is a sign of things to come, ALL communities must be vigilant and aware of what is happening or what could happen. This could have easily turned into another rape, but the girl lives next to the shelter and was able to free herself and get home both times.

 

A reminder that on October 2019, a 3-year-old was sexually molested by a resident of this very same shelter. DHS, under Steve Banks's and Mayor Deblasio's leadership, did nothing, nor did they try to help resolve this. At the time, an arrest was made with no help from DHS or Lantern. Warrants had to be issued as DHS refused to aid in the arrest.

We now demand Mayor Eric Adams look at everyone who was rolled over from the Banks/Deblasio days and either gets reassigned or fired. We are not going to wait for a repeat of molestation again. We are informing the city that the next time we will file a class action lawsuit holding the city, Dhs, Lantern, and the property owners responsible for all criminal activity from this shelter. You will NOT destroy our quality of life with your inability to control these clients. Many of them have untreated mental illness, and Lantern, DHS, nor NYC are doing anything to help.

 

We are also monitoring the sex apps to catch them using public areas to have sex. We have since closed 1 locations they got caught in and had them fenced up so they canot use them anymore. We also watch for the parks where they were trying to hook up there and have since turned that over to the NYPD.

DHS/Office of Intergovernmental Affairs was given seven days to set up the Community Advisory Board (CAB) Meeting, and here we are; nothing has been done. So we are now holding a press conference and allowing the mother of the minor 17-year-old to speak her voice and give a face to the sexual harassment and the inadequate way this shelter is being run. The mother has now advised us that she lives in fear and that she now wants to move.

The demands are as follows:

1-All personnel rolled over from the Banks/Deblasio administration need to be reassigned. They have proven to be inefficient, unconcerned and uncooperative.

2-We are asking for a review of Lantern's contract. What services are supposed to be provided, and what assistance are these clients supposed to have? We believe Lantern has cut corners and sacrificed our communities safety for profits.

 
3-Lantern needs to provide effective and caring leadership as the current leadership has failed our community as well as its mission statement of caring for the shelter clients while working with the community.

4- A review of how these clients are permitted to roam all over the neighborhood, stealing packages, drinking, causing havoc, and sitting on people's stoops with no programs provided by Lantern makes for more criminal activity.

5-We demand that we return to the days of the CAB meetings so that, as a community, we get to speak our voices, and they get to hear our concerns.

6-Security needs to be beefed up inside and outside this shelter. Loitering has become a huge problem surrounding this site, and security is doing nothing.

7-Lantern needs to respect our community, and we are tired of our voices not being heard.

8-We demand that the NYPD have access when necessary when a crime has been committed by a shelter client and not stonewalled by Lantern or DHS.

Sam Esposito

President

Ozone Park Residents Block Association-ozpkrba

Update: 

QNS

A furious and fed-up Ozone Park mother rallied with community leaders Wednesday, Aug. 16, outside a shelter for homeless men where her 17-year-old daughter was allegedly sexually harassed by residents twice in the last month.

Lissette Moreno joined members of the Ozone Park Residents Block Association outside the Laurel Hall Shelter at 85-15 101st Ave. and told them about the first incident that happened to her daughter on July 18, as the teenager was walking home late at night after her shift at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.

“It’s just not safe here. You have people here with mental illnesses that shouldn’t be here and if they are here, they should be on medication, they should be supervised,” Moreno said. “This shelter needs to go. It’s too dangerous for our kids,”

She said she lives on 86th Street directly next door to the shelter which is located across 101st Avenue from Crossover Baptist Church a block away from Ampere Playground. 

 “Who puts a shelter here where there are schools, where there are children? I have my daughter, she comes home from work at late hours, why does she have to be harassed by these guys?” Moreno asked. “I’m just so tired.”

She wanted her daughter to speak at the rally, but she stayed away out of fear of being targeted by the residents of the shelter. Moreno said the men are out in front of the building each night drinking and smoking and blasting loud music.

“This is a men’s shelter, so when they’re outside they want to interact with women,” Moreno said.

After her daughter was allegedly sexually molested by two men in front of the shelter on July 18, Moreno found her daughter trembling as the men were telling the teen to add their numbers to her phone. Two days later, one of the same men followed her daughter up the block. Her complaints have fallen on deaf ears and the people who run the shelter “have no compassion,” she said, adding her daughter wants to move out of the neighborhood and they are currently looking for a new place.

Juan Anon investigates and exonerates himself

  

Queens Chronicle

 

Assemblymember Juan Ardila (D-Maspeth) hired legal counsel to conduct an independent review of the accusations of sexual assault made against him, and it has found him not guilty, two sources familiar with the situation told the Chronicle. The same sources said Ardila plans to announce the findings next week.

Ardila had not previously made public the review, which was conducted within a matter of weeks as Albany was and still is in the midst of budget negotiations for the upcoming fiscal year. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When one of the two women accusing the lawmaker learned of the review — for which she told the Chronicle she was not contacted — she on Thursday opted to press charges and cooperate with a criminal investigation into the allegations by the NYPD’s special victims unit and the Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as the New York Post reported Thursday night. Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Office of Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark is also involved with the case, a source familiar with the investigation told the Chronicle. Asked for confirmation on the DA’s role in the case, a spokesperson for the office said, “We are unable to comment on a possible investigation right now, but will provide information at a later time if we can.”

Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D-Corona), a close ally of Ardila’s, had previously called for an independent review into her colleague’s alleged actions. 

Asked about her role in the review, Cruz wrote in a message to the Chronicle, “I have no comment except to say that I can confirm that I have never and don’t practice that area of the law and I’m not involved with any type of investigation on this matter.”

Less than three weeks ago, Ardila was accused of sexually assaulting the women, two Fordham University students, at an October 2015 party in Manhattan with other Fordham students and alumni, as the Chronicle first reported. He had graduated from the school the previous spring. His first accuser said she came forward after learning he had been elected to the state Assembly in November.

Neither woman had reported her experience to the police in 2015 — which one of them previously told the Chronicle was out of a lack faith in the legal system and initially, a lack of tangible evidence — nor had either taken any legal action up until now. 

Asked about her change of heart, the victim, who is pressing charges, said in a statement to the Chronicle, “Juan Ardila’s disregard for the calls from elected officials and my call for resignation is a clear sign that he is unfit for public office. 

“I hope for a fair and swift investigation and justice will be served. Juan Ardila must be held accountable for the pain inflicted to his victims including those who may have not publicly come forward yet.”

Bad Don Juan Ardila is not going

💧Today, my colleagues in the State Assembly & I passed a resolution proclaiming March 22 as #WaterDay in the state of NY!

Fresh water is one of our planet's most precious resources, so let's fight to keep our waterways clean, free of pollution & keep water accessible to all. pic.twitter.com/5FfRi9Peel

— Juan Ardila (@JuanArdilaNYS) March 22, 2023

AMNY

Ten days after a series of bombshell allegations came out accusing Assemblyman Juan Ardila of sexually assaulting two women, one of the victims told amNY Metro that she is devastated that he has shown no signs of stepping down and that his actions represent a continued “abuse of power.”

Ardila, a first-term assemblyman who represents western Queens, has been silent since he issued a statement on March 14, one day after several local news outlets reported allegations that he had sexually assaulted two intoxicated women at a party in October 2015.

He said in that statement that he took “responsibility for my actions” and was “eager for a restorative justice-centered process.”

But not a word has been uttered by him since on the matter, despite calls from more than a dozen elected officials for him to resign. The officials include Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Grace Meng, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and state Sens. Kristen Gonzalez, Julia Salazar and Mike Gianaris, Ass. Zohran Mamdani, Councilmembers Julie Won, Tiffany Caban, Robert Holden and many more.

One of the women who accused Ardila of sexual assault said his silence was in keeping with his character.

“Juan’s response to the accusations has shown me that little has changed between now and 2015,” she told amNY Metro. “Despite the evidence, Juan initially denied the allegations, and then reluctantly delivered a manufactured apology followed by radio silence.”

The woman, who called for him to resign last week, then went on to say: “It is clear that he does not care about the harm that he has inflicted on others, including his constituents who feel deceived and are calling for him to resign. Juan does not embody the level of integrity or honesty that should be expected from someone in his position. Just like that night in 2015, he continues to abuse power. He needs to resign.”

Ardila posted two tweets Wednesday night, the first communication he has had with constituents since his May 14 statement. Neither addressed the sexual assault allegations.

Juan Ardila admits sexual assaults; victim/constituent and AOC demand his resignation

 

 Queens Post

Freshman Assemblyman Juan Ardila, who represents western Queens, faced political fallout Tuesday after being accused of sexual assault by two women—allegations that the lawmaker did not refute when asked for comment.

Ardila, who first took office in January after winning a vacant 37^th District assembly seat last year, allegedly targeted two women at a party in October 2015. The party took place inside a Manhattan apartment and was attended by Fordham University students and alumni.

One of the victims, who reached out to Queens Post and requested anonymity, said that Ardila “got physical” with her – and was “touching her” — while she was drunk on a couch at the party. The woman, who was 21 at the time, said Ardila then tried to drag her into the bathroom before a friend intervened.

Meanwhile, another woman that night provided a statement saying that Ardila pulled her into the bathroom a short time later, before exposing himself and then groping her. The woman allegedly then ran out of the bathroom.

The women were both seniors at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus at the time of the party. Ardila had graduated from the university in the spring and had just started working for Brad Lander, who was a councilmember at the time. Neither woman had ever spoken to Ardila prior to the night of the party.

Ardila, who was endorsed by progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Sen. Jessica Ramos in his race last year, issued a statement late last night expressing regret for his actions. The statement came shortly after he told the Queens Chronicle that he had no knowledge of the alleged incidents.

“I apologize for my behavior,” Ardila said in his statement. “I have spent time reflecting and I hope to prove that I have matured since college. I’m committed to learning from this and I am able to demonstrate my own personal growth.”

But the victim who contacted Queens Post wasn’t buying Ardila’s statement after it was read to her.

“I find Juan’s statement to be deeply troubling and dismissive of the harm he has caused me and others. His apology—which comes on the heels of his initial denial—rings insincere,” she said. “He blames the assault on youthful indiscretion during college (although he had graduated at the time of the incident) and I find this both dismissive and insulting. Sexual assault is a serious crime, and it is not something that can be excused or explained away by age or circumstances.”

The woman, who moved to Long Island City last month, said that she only decided to go public with her ordeal when she discovered that Ardila was an assemblymember—and the one who represented her area.

“The public deserves to know about his past,” she said, noting that she has reached out to several local news outlets about the incident.

Queens Post

While Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila acknowledged and apologized for sexually assaulting two women at a party in 2015, one of his alleged victims now demands that he step down.

“I am calling for Juan Ardila to resign as an Assembly member and would like to see the organizations and elected officials who have publicly supported Juan retract their support,” the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Queens Post Tuesday afternoon.  

Some elected officials and community leaders called for an investigation into Ardila, while others demanded his resignation and asked those who previously endorsed him to withdraw their support.

These announcements come one day after news broke that Ardila allegedly sexually assaulted two women at a Manhattan party held by Fordham University students nearly eight years ago. One victim said he inappropriately touched her and tried to lead her into the bathroom before a friend intervened, while another said he groped her. Both requested to be anonymous.

Ardila, who issued an apology following the allegations, was elected last year to represent the 37th assembly district covering western Queens, taking over a seat that was left vacant by Cathy Nolan.

Among those who endorsed Ardila during his campaign last year were Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez; Comptroller Brad Lander; Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; state Senators Michael Gianaris and Jessica Ramos; Council member Tiffany Cabán, the Working Families Party and many others.

Councilman Robert Holden, a former opponent of Ardila’s when campaigning for City Council in 2021, was the first elected leader to come out today to demand his resignation. He also called on those who had endorsed him to retract them.

“Juan Ardila’s record of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, antisemitism, reckless driving, and now sexual assault has disqualified him from office,” Holden said in a statement. “His actions are reprehensible and unacceptable, and they should be disavowed at all costs by elected officials, like [Queens Borough President] Donovan Richards, unions, and other groups. Sexual assault must never be tolerated.”

Richards responded, saying the allegations against Ardila are “deeply troubling and require a full and thorough investigation.”

“If these disturbing accusations against him are found to be true, Assemblymember Ardila should resign,” Richards said in a statement to Queens Post. “Trust in government cannot be possible without accountability from all who have been elected to lead our communities.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Queens Post the congresswoman believes Ardila should step down.

“We will be withdrawing his Courage to Change PAC endorsement, which was issued for his 2022 campaign,” the spokesperson said.

Bad Don Juan

 

Queens Eagle

Queens Assemblymember Juan Ardila has been accused by two women of sexual assault during a 2015 party shortly after he had graduated college.

The two women, who both attended Fordham University at Lincoln Center at the same time as Ardila, allege that at a party in October of 2015, the current assemblymember for Long Island City, Sunnyside, Maspeth and Ridgewood, but at the time a recent graduate of the school, sexually harassed one of them and attempted to pull her into a bathroom, then later in the night pulled another woman into the bathroom and assaulted her. 

The first victim, who reached out to the Eagle and also spoke to the Queens Chronicle on the condition of anonymity, alleges that while she was drunk, Ardila attempted to pull her into a bathroom before a friend intervened. 

The first victim was also sent a communication from the second victim in which the second victim claims Ardila pulled her into the bathroom and forcibly kissed her and removed his pants.

The first victim, who was 21-years-old at the time, said the night of the party she was heavily intoxicated. Ardila was allegedly also at the party and had previously had no interactions with the first victim. 

The first victim said she remembers sitting on the couch next to Ardila, and remembers him being “very close” to her and “touchy.”

“I was the most intoxicated person there,” she recalled.

“But I do remember being on the couch, in the living room kind of away from everyone else, with Juan and it was towards the very end of the night, so people were starting to leave and the party didn't feel as crowded,” she added. “I remember he and I were close to each other, and he started getting physical with me.” 

At that point, she said her memory cuts out. Her friend, who also wished to remain anonymous, says she saw Ardila pulling the first victim into the bathroom, and decided to intervene.  

“They crossed paths with me and I saw [the first victim] way beyond the ability to consent,” the friend told the Eagle. “So, I interceded and I just grabbed her arm and I said, like, ‘No, she's drunk,’ and that was the end of it.” 

The second victim declined to speak to the Eagle.

However, she shared an account of her experience via text message to the first victim after the first victim informed her that she’d be reaching out to the press. The text was shared with the Eagle. 

“It happened towards the end of the night,” the second victim’s message said. “As far as I can recall [Ardila and I] had exactly zero conversation. It’s possible we were introduced because we’d never formally met before but I don’t remember that.”

“We were standing in a group by the door when [Ardila] said come here, and pulled me into the bathroom,” the text continued. “What felt like 0.2 seconds later we were in the bathroom with the door closed and he was kissing me. When I realized what was happening I pulled away, looked down, and he’d already taken his penis out and was stroking himself.” 

She said she bolted out of the bathroom and immediately told her friends what had happened. 

According to the text, Ardila then left the party. 

The city has been funding a homeless services non-profit run by a sexual predator

 

NY Times

 At first, the offer seemed generous. Erica Sklar was in a homeless shelter and needed a more stable place to live. Victor Rivera, who oversaw a network of shelters, including the one where she was staying, said he had a solution: a spare apartment for her at his home in the Bronx.

But after Ms. Sklar moved in, she said, she realized that Mr. Rivera, whose nonprofit organization is one of the largest operators of homeless shelters in New York, had other intentions. In December 2016, he asked to see a leaking ceiling in her bedroom, then turned off the lights, pushed her against a wall and began fondling her, according to Ms. Sklar and two friends in whom she confided.

He demanded she give him oral sex, suggesting he would evict her if she refused, she said. Desperate to hold on to her apartment, she complied.

Ms. Sklar is one of 10 women who said they had endured assault or unwanted sexual attention from Mr. Rivera, The New York Times found. Even as some women have sounded warnings about Mr. Rivera — including two who were given payments by his organization that ensured their silence — his power and influence have only grown during New York’s worst homeless crisis in decades.

His organization, the Bronx Parent Housing Network, has received more than $274 million from the city to run homeless shelters and provide services just since 2017. The pandemic has intensified Mr. Rivera’s importance: As the coronavirus swept through the homeless population, the city gave his group $10 million to provide rooms where infected people could isolate and recover.

 Women reported Mr. Rivera’s behavior to a state agency, a city hotline and, in one instance, the police. But he maintained his perch atop the organization.

One employee of the Bronx Parent Housing Network said that Mr. Rivera, the chief executive, forced her to give him oral sex in 2016 and then fired her, according to police records, interviews and other documents. In 2018, another employee accused Mr. Rivera of groping her and whispering sexual comments in her ear. After both women separately complained to a state human rights agency, the Bronx Parent Housing Network paid them a total of $175,000 in settlements that prohibited them from speaking publicly about their allegations, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Times.

Five of the women were living in Mr. Rivera’s homeless shelters, or had recently left, when Mr. Rivera approached them for sex, they said.

“He’s got a lot of power over a lot of vulnerable girls,” said Ms. Sklar, 49.

Questioning Cy's judgment

From NPR:

"If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, chief assistant district attorney.

But criminal attorney Matthew Galluzzo, who once worked in the DA's sex crimes unit, told The Associated Press he believed the audiotape, in which Weinstein acknowledges touching Gutierrez on the breast, could have been used to pursue a case.

"She can testify about what happened, and you've got him acknowledging he did something wrong," Galluzzo said.

Before this week, questions were also being raised about Vance's handling of a fraud investigation involving the Trump SoHo, a condo hotel built by the Bayrock Group. Some early buyers of units at the hotel sued Bayrock, arguing that they had been misled about the hotel's sales records.

The Manhattan DA's office had considered pursuing fraud charges against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who played a big role in promoting the hotel. An investigation by The New Yorker, WNYC and ProPublica said prosecutors wanted to pursue a criminal case, but Vance said evidence to do so was lacking.

The report also noted that Vance had received a $32,000 campaign contribution from one of Trump's lawyers shortly after dropping the case. Vance had also received an earlier donation, which he had returned.

"It was improper for him to accept it in the first place. He responded by returning those donations and then apparently accepted them again after the fact," noted Jim Cohen, a professor at Fordham University School of Law.

Fake cabbie assaults homeless family

From the Queens Courier:

A man claiming to be a cab driver tried to sexually assault a woman in Elmhurst before attacking her young children who were also in the vehicle, police said.

The 26-year-old victim was picked up with her three children, ages 1, 3 and 5, by the suspect at 207th Street in Manhattan on Sunday, officials said. Stating that he was a cab driver, he agreed to drop them off at 79-00 Queens Blvd., the site of the former Pan American Hotel, which was recently converted into a homeless shelter.

After stopping behind the building at about 2:45 a.m., the driver attempted to sexually assault the victim while her children were still in the car, according to police. When the woman tried to get out of the vehicle, the suspect elbowed the 5-year-old in the head and forcibly removed the 3-year-old from the car before fleeing.


Update 8/29: The perp was apprehended, and is being charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Cameras coming to Forest Park

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-Woodhaven) and state Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) allocated $250,000 for surveillance cameras after the NYPD said police had linked the rape of a 69-year-old woman in the park this September to five additional rapes or attempted rapes over the past 2 1/2 years.

The legislators hope the seven surveillance units, which come with two cameras apiece, deter sexual predators from targeting parkgoers.

Miller’s office said the equipment is slated to be installed near the corner of Park Lane South and Woodhaven Boulevard, the intersection of 80th Street and Myrtle Avenue, the junction of Forest Parkway and Park Lane South and the corner of Freedom Drive and Myrtle Avenue.

Cameras are also coming to the park’s visitor center on Woodhaven Boulevard, the Buddy Monument near Myrtle Avenue and Park Lane South and the Forest Park Bandshell, according to Miller’s staff.

Sexual assault complaints up

From the Daily News:

A sharp spike in reported misdemeanor sexual assaults in western Queens this year may seem at first a cause for alarm.

But lawmakers and crime experts suggest that the grim statistics could also have a silver lining — a greater willingness by victims to report crimes such as gropings.

The crime stats for the week ending July 1 in the 108th Precinct show a 125% jump in reported misdemeanor sex crimes compared to the same period last year, up from 16 to 36. Year-to-date hikes also jumped 50% for both the 110th and 115th precincts.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said that while the stats could mean more predators are on the loose, the more likely explanation is that victims are reporting the crimes at a higher rate.

“Most women before probably thought these were isolated incidents,” said Vallone, who heads the Council’s public safety committee.

Could the increase possibly be due to the influx of men from countries where this behavior is considered to be normal?

Prostitution pipeline leads back to Mexico

From the Daily News:

In this small Mexican town that sends sex slaves to New York, little boys dream of growing up to be pimps.

Gaudy gabled houses that rise above gated walls are proof of the profits to be made from funneling “delivery girls” to Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.

It’s a family business, and through the decades, the pimps have perfected methods to coerce women into sexual slavery using romance, lies and the threat of violence. Over the last 20 years they have branched out of Latin America, sending sex workers to New York and other U.S. cities, experts said.

Each family sends its youngest and most handsome men across Mexico to pose as salesmen with nice clothes and fancy cars, Munoz Berruecos said.

They woo rural women waiting at bus stops or taking Sunday strolls in the park. Once the women are seduced, they are coerced into prostitution.

The women are held inside the Tenancingo “security houses” — where some say they were repeatedly raped. If they have children, the kids are kept in the town for leverage after they are dispatched to red-light districts.

Some go to Mexico City. Many end up in Queens, where johns can order them for delivery by calling numbers advertised on cards, key chains or bottle openers, authorities say.

Jawin's letter to Schenkler

To The Editor (Queens Tribune):

Think global and act local! The issues of sex trafficking and domestic violence require this approach. My role, representing the Center for the Women of New York on this issue, has been mentioned in what has developed into a public discussion between two of our community newspapers, the Queens Tribune and the Queens Chronicle.

The topic of sex trafficking, prostitution and legislation on Violence Against Women has been featured in recent issues in the national press and by various coalitions of women’s groups working against domestic violence and sex trafficking. Nicholas Kristof, a feature writer of the New York Times writes frequently on this issue and in the April 1, 2012, issue states that the problem of sex trafficking has reached epidemic proportions and lists the internet site, Backpage.com, as a major source for advertising underage girls!

Our Center for the Women of New York has been working on the issue of domestic violence for many years and most recently highlighted the problem of sex trafficking at a NYC Hearing called by Councilwomen Julissa Ferreras, Chair of Women’s Issues. The Center also held a panel discussion at our general meeting at Queensborough Hall on Oct. 19, 2011, with representatives of women’s organizations and Mr. Ciminiello, the Chair of the Vice Squad of the Queens District Attorney.

Citing the presence of ads featuring “adult services,” which are thinly disguised ads for prostitution, the group decided to start a campaign at the local level, asking the publishers and editors of the English speaking community papers in Queens to sign a pledge to voluntarily agree not to accept ads promoting prostitution or were degrading to women.

Many of these women and girls are kidnapped, beaten and raped to secure obedience for sexual acts. Some of the women are lured from outside the country to promise of good paying work at hotels and their legitimate jobs. Many of the girls are from all around the country who are escaping violence and difficult conditions at home or have been kidnapped and brought here. The proximity of airports, Port Authority, and railroads make it a rich resource for predators to find innocent victims! The existence of Internet advertising and newspapers as the Village Voice and AM newspapers listing blatant ads for “adult services” feeds this ugly chain of supply and demand.

The problem is huge and our discussion focused on what local community groups could do to try to deal with it. A decision to focus locally on community newspapers was made and a campaign to start with English language Queens media was made. The straightforward request was made to all of the publishers and editors to voluntarily stop accepting the ads that featured adult services or were demeaning and degrade women.

The first publisher, Mark Weidler, of the Queens Chronicle, was the most cooperative and supportive and immediately agreed and promised to help with the goals of our project. The rest of the local media followed. One editor had not realized that his advertising section did contain two or three and immediately stopped accepting the ads. The only publisher who had the most blatant and prolific series of advertisements, often covering two pages in its back section was the Queens Tribune.

A delegation of the Coalition composed of myself, representing CWNY, John Tandana, president of the Queens chapter of the United Nations Association and Karen Siegel, Chair of the Zonta Club of Greater Queens, visited Michael Schenkler and his editorial staff. We explained the problem and requested his voluntary cooperation. He refused with the reasoning that he was concerned with the problem of protecting freedom of speech.

We countered his reasoning with the fact that the services advertised were illegal and he was not required by law to accept ads that were legal or otherwise. His paper was earning money as a result of the ads that the other publishers were sacrificing.

Mr. Schenkler was adamant about both his concern about eliminating sex trafficking and what he considered his responsibility to protect freedom of the press by taking the ads. He offered to give me space in his paper to write about the problem of violence against women and sex trafficking.

I regret to say that after writing an article (with the approval of the other two members of the committee), the editor refused to print it because he was disappointed with the content. Mr. Schenkler refuses to stop accepting the offensive ads!

The celebration of the Center’s 25th anniversary on April 28, 2012, has unexpectedly brought the issue into focus. The Center has invited as its honorees two public officials, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and Assemblywoman Grace Meng because of their concern and repeated positions of women’s rights and against violence against women. The sudden vacancy of a congressional seat in the new 6th Assembly District produced two honorees who became candidates for the same seat! But the issue which became explosive was an attack on me by an anonymous writer for honoring one of the candidates, Grace Meng, who was using the publishing company of the Queens Tribune in her campaign and therefore subsidizing sex trafficking. By associating this unexpected coincidence, the writer accused me of lending my support for sex trafficking!

Although I believed the writer’s logic was flawed, I did contact Grace Meng who, to her credit, had a meeting with Michael Schenkler.

I am writing this article because I believe that the result was a poor response by the Queens Tribune. As a legislator, Grace Meng promised to try to get legislation passed to license massage parlors and escort services so that the publishing of such services would be illegal. Mr. Schenkler thinks that is an ideal solution and suggests that the center and similar organizations should work very hard to get this passed. According to his reasoning, he doesn’t violate free speech by taking these ads. Meantime he can continue to make money and publish all the ads he wants!

First of all, I liken this solution to many difficult problems in Congress when they appoint a committee to study a problem and then forget about it!

Second of all, Grace Meng and other women legislators have had press conferences trying to prevent the national Violence Against Women Law to get continued without removing some of the guarantees for immigrant women that already exist. While we are in favor of a New York State law with guarantees for immigrant women, the passage of such laws take a very long time and the abuse of women is happening daily and right in our own neighborhoods!

The third reason we are disappointed with this meeting is that Michael Schenkler refuses to take any responsibility for his practices. He gives everyone else the job of solving the problem.


He refuses to be part of the solution. A new law will not prevent his ads from promoting “Hot Asian Kisses,” or “sweet Asian girls @$50.00 per hour.” They don’t even mention massages! These are all obvious ads for sex without mentioning the word “sex.” In the words of a famous Supreme Court decision about obscenity, “you know it when you see it.”

All we ask you to do, Michael Schenkler, is to think about your community and the lives of these young girls and women and stop taking the money and printing the ads. Live up to the standards of our most prestigious newspaper in our country, the New York Times and their motto, “All the News that Fit to Print!”

Ann Jawin,
Founder, Center For the Women of New York, Kew Gardens

Smile for the camera

From the Daily News:

A grinning groper was caught on camera by his 25-year-old victim after he sexually assaulted her on a Queens street, cops said.

The bespectacled butt-grabber - described by police as a black male, between 5-feet-10 and 6-feet - approached the woman from behind on Friday around 11:15 a.m. and put his paws on her buttocks, police said.

He fled afterwards, but not before she snapped a flick of his toothy smirk.

He was wearing a blue American Eagle vest with a black sweatshirt underneath during the attack, according to cops.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Elmhurst perv on the loose

From the NY Post:

A man molested two 12-year-old girls in Queens after driving up and asking directions, cops said last night.

The first attack occurred on Nov. 7 when the perv, in a white sedan with a flag sticker on the driver’s door, approached a girl at around 8 a.m. on 54th Avenue in Elmhurst, cops said.

The creep showed the girl a piece of paper with numbers on it and asked if she knew the address. He lured her into his car and then groped her, cops said.

The second attack, with the same m.o., occurred at around 4 p.m. Friday on 55th Avenue. Neither girl was injured.

One Queens perv caught, another on the loose

From CBS New York:

A suspect is being sought in connection with yet another sex crime in Queens.

Police said that last Thursday a suspect approached 22-year-old woman at the Seneca Avenue M Line subway station and grabbed her breast and private area. The suspect then fled the station for the street, authorities said.

The suspect is said to be a Hispanic man, between 25-30 years old and approximately 5-foot-5. He was last seen wearing a hooded ECKO sweatshirt and blue jeans.

From the NY Times:

A 15-year-old Queens youth has been arrested on charges that he tried to rape two women this month, part of what the authorities say is a pattern of five attacks in the borough’s southeastern section that began in late September.

The youth, whose name was not released, is said by prosecutors to have attacked a 40-year-old woman on Oct. 9 and a 24-year-old woman on Oct. 16, both in Laurelton. In the two cases, prosecutors said, the youth punched the women and tore at their clothes, leaving them bruised and bleeding. He is charged with assault, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sex abuse and one count of sex abuse.

The police said the suspect was arrested Sunday and charged Monday after being identified by victims in two lineups.

Because he is a juvenile, the suspect would face up to eight years in prison if convicted, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. A police spokesman declined Monday evening to say how the youth was caught.

Fake cop sexually assaults man

From the Times Ledger:

The NYPD has arrested a Bayside man they claim forced a victim to perform a sex act by impersonating a police officer.

On Oct. 13, 27-year-old Julio Olivares, of Bell Boulevard, was arrested by members of the Internal Affairs Bureau’s Police Impersonation Unit on criminal sex act and criminal impersonation of a police officer charges, cops said.

Police allege that on June 16, 2010, Olivares approached his male victim in a gray SUV and displayed a gold, police-type shield and instructed the victim to enter his vehicle.

Olivares allegedly told his victim that he looked like one of his confidential informants and proceeded to drive to a nearby parking garage within the confines of the 114th Precinct, where he forced the victim to perform a sex act on him, police said.

Lots of pervs plague Queens

From CBS New York:

Police in Queens are trying to identify a suspect they say is wanted for sexual assaults in Jackson Heights over the summer.

Police say the first attack happened on July 21 when the suspect grabbed an 18-year-old woman from behind, sexual abused her then took off.

Then, a day later, police say he did walked up from behind to a 21-year-old woman, attacked her and fled.

Police say the suspect is Hispanic, between 25 and 30-years-old with a thin build and black hair.

From NBC:

Police are asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect in the rape of a 20-year-old woman in a public area of Jamaica, Queens.

Police said the victim was walking in the area of 108 Drive and Merrick Blvd. at around 2 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, when she was approached by a man armed with a box cutter.

The man took her to a secluded area and raped her, police said.

The suspect is described as about 20 to 23 years old, with a Caeser-style haircut. He was wearing a black bandana across his face, a black waist-length leather jacket and dark jeans, police said.

Perv attacking school girls at bus stops

From WPIX:

Pix 11 has learned about a string of sex assaults in Queens, mostly against High School aged girls near and area known as the "school corridor". In all five cases, the victims were waiting for or were on an MTA bus in the morning when the perverts struck, says retired NYPD Detective Sergeant, Wally Zeins.

Zeins says that the first report, in this string of attacks, happened on September 27th at seven in the morning at the intersection of Jamacia Boulevard and Parsons Boulevard. A high school aged female reported that a male came up behind her touched her. And by noon that day, police got two more reports of assaults. One near Chapin Parkway and the other at Archer Avenue and Union Hall street. In that case, a male came up behind the girl, who was heading to school and pulled down her pants and grabbed her private area.

In all three of those cases, Wally says the suspects matches one description.

Then, a week later police got reports of a male, with a fat lower lip, walking up to a girl waiting for the Q 88 bus, near Main Street, asking "do you know it's raining?" then proceeded to grab her neck and breast.

Two days later, on October 5th, Zeins said that another groper revealed his private parts to a high school aged girl on the Q 88 bus near Kissena Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard.

Wally said the Special Victims Unit was swift to make an arrest in that case and believe the suspect might be connected to another case, on October 4th.

Is Jackson Heights an epicenter of perversion?

From the Queens Chronicle:

“If you have breasts, you get hit on. That’s how this neighborhood is,” said Nicolle Loayza, 26. She was talking about Jackson Heights, where she was born and raised. A man accused of groping three women in the neighborhood on two different occasions is still at large.

On the heels of these reports and a spate of separate groping incidents reported in Astoria and the Upper East Side, council members Julissa Ferreras (D-Corona) and Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) stood on the corner of 90th Street and Roosevelt Avenue today to pass out fliers with the police drawing of the Jackson Heights groper.

Yesterday, a different man, Jose Alfredo Perez Hernandez, was arrested for allegedly fondling several women on the Upper East Side, according to published reports. Hernandez is from Corona.

Ferreras said she decided to canvass Jackson Heights today both because of the incidents that occurred in her district and because of Hernandez. “Is this the place where people come to hide?” she asked of Corona.

While Dromm and Ferreras continued to pass out fliers, Loayza pointed to the spot across Roosevelt Avenue where she said men often wait just to look up women’s skirts when they climb the stairs to the 90th St. 7 train.

She described the time a man grabbed her crotch a few blocks away when she was just 12 years old, and said men often follow her home from the train, catcalling her along the way. However, she has never reported a single incident.

“I’ve learned to deal with it,” she said. “You just walk around the block and try to lose them.”

But Ferreras thinks this is precisely the problem.

“It’s not just about shrugging it off or avoiding a corner,” Ferreras said.

How about the fact that this behavior has for decades been considered acceptable in some of the vibrant, diverse cultures that call Jackson Heights home? I heard stories like this about Jackson Heights back in the 1980s.