Man Arrested for Exposing Himself to Young Woman

This afternoon, Shomrim received a call from a young Jewish woman who said an African-American man in his early 30s wearing a jacket emblazoned with the word ‘security’ exposed himself to her near the corner of East New York and Kingston Avenues.

Shomrim volunteers arrived at the scene within seconds and met with the victim. Despite was had happened to her, she had not lost her cool and managed to snap a photo of the creep, which she shared with the volunteers.

Armed with the photo, the volunteers canvassed the area, and soon spotted the suspect near the corner of Kingston and Winthrop. After calling 911, they followed him from afar until he entered an apartment building on Clarkson and Albany, across the street from Kings County Hospital.

The volunteers followed him into the building and met with its security guard, to whom they explained the situation. The guard helpfully gave the volunteers access to the building’s surveillance cameras, and together they observed the suspect enter one of the apartments.

As they waited for police to arrive, one group of Shomrim volunteers kept a watchful eye on the suspect’s apartment door, while the other group stayed with the victim and accompanied her to suspect’s location.

After an unusually long wait of close to 25 minutes, a call was made to the 71st Precinct’s Commanding Officer, who profusely apologized for the lengthy delay.

A police lieutenant showed up at the scene shortly thereafter, and knocked on the man’s apartment door asking to speak with him. The man denied any wrongdoing, but the officer calmly explained that they just wanted to ask him a few questions, and successfully coaxed him out of his apartment and the building.

As soon as he exited the building, the victim identified the suspect without a moment’s hesitation. The man was placed under arrest and brought to the 71st Precinct, where he was charged with public lewdness, a misdemeanor.

The building’s security guard mentioned to the Shomrim volunteers that he had received multiple complaints in the past from tenants about this man, many for similarly lewd behavior.

A Shomrim volunteer told CrownHeights.info that despite their late response, the police handled the situation with courtesy and professionalism, for which he and his colleagues thanked them.

Photos by Benjamin Lifshitz

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The photo taken by the victim after the suspect exposed himself.

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18 Comments

  • what?

    someone explain the legalities of this.. one person can claim that someone did something wrong and without any proof they can arrest the guy just on her say so?
    I am not chas vshalom saying I dont believe this girl, I am just asking for someone to clarify for me the technical aspect of this. Technically anyone can accuse anyone of doing something wrong and without any proof get that person arrested.

    • ???

      The victim is my daughter in law – probably the most level headed person I know. She doesn’t make things up – & anyhow, why would anyone make up something like this against a complete stranger? It turns out this creep is a real sick person who has clearly done this before, so do you think this was just because she had nothing better to do?.By your logic, no one should ever accuse anyone of anything unless he is literally arrested in the middle of the crime.

      I suggest since you feel so strongly that this poor, downtrodden man may have been unjustly arrested, you bail him out & invite him for dinner.

    • Milhouse

      Yes, tha is how it works. Anybody can accuse another person of a crime, and the police will usually arrest the accused person, unless they have a good reason to suspect that the accuser is lying. Quite often you can be convicted on one person’s unsupported testimony too. If the jury finds the accuser believable, that’s all it takes.

    • CH mother

      #4 asks a valid question, and #5 gets all defensive and huffy. “…since you feel so strongly that this poor…man may have been unjustly arrested…” ?? huh? Do you read English?? Why can’t someone ask a question and expect an informed person to answer?

    • what?

      you COMPLETELY missed my point. I said I am merely asking about the technical aspect of this.. I am 100% confident the young woman in this story did NOT make this up. I am merely reading the details and it said she told officers he did something wrong and based on her say so they arrested him. Taking your daughter in law OUT of the equation.. (did you even read what I wrote?) if this is how things work then technically anyone can make something up. anyone being any random sick person can walk up to any officer point to a stranger on the street and say that person stole my phone. Or that person just exposed themselves to me. and then they arrest that person? Can someone other than the person above me explain the legalities, the technical aspect of this?

    • K

      Milhouse wrote: Quite often you can be convicted on one person’s unsupported testimony too. If the jury finds the accuser believable, that’s all it takes.

      That is not fully accurate. The jury must ALSO not believe the accused person’s denial of the crime (because if they believe the denial or explanation – they must acquit). AND the jury must ALSO not be left with ANY REASONABLE DOUBT about the victim’s story.

    • response to 4

      She is not a ‘girl’. the article described her as a ‘young Jewish woman’.

      The term girl is often used inappropriately in our community. Even if a woman is not married (this woman is, as evidence by a later post) let’s respect them and call them young women, not girls.

  • Quick response

    I was there and the shomrim response was real fast and professional while showing sensitivity to the victim.

  • @ 4. what?

    I was thinking the same thing… Kind of scary if anyone can be arrested just because someone says he exposed himself. Can someone please explain?

    • Milhouse

      The explanation is simply that this is how the system works, and how it has always worked. Anyone can be arrested if someone accused him of a crime.

    • awacs

      The bottom line, what would you do differently? For low level crimes like this, the standards of proof – IRL – are much lower – otherwise justice would grind to a halt. That’s also the reason, kinda sort, why you can be made to pay a parking ticket without ANY eyewitness testimony or right to cross examine. “It’s only a parking ticket, after all.”

  • Leah

    Arrested? So what? I saw him today on the bus in CH. The same guy, same beard and shirt…