UPDATE: Rafael Rojas-Gonzalez, 35, was arrested for the incident described below on Friday, January 13. His charges include Forcible Touching, Sexual Abuse, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
At about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 15, a 14-year-old female was riding a northbound 1 train when an unidentified male suspect “approached [her] from behind and grabbed her buttocks with his hands,” police say. According to the NYPD, the incident took place at or near the West 66th Street station.
Both the victim and the male suspect remained on the train. The victim did not sustain any injuries as a result of this incident.
Police describe the suspect as “a male, with a light complexion, approximately 25 to 30 years of age, 5’5″ to 5’8″ in height and last seen wearing a gold and blue knit hat, a black North face jacket, black V-neck t-shirt and a black disposable mask.”
Surveillance photos were captured at the scene of the incident.
Anyone with relevant information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by sending a direct message to @NYPDTips on Twitter.
Congrats NYPD!
Upper west side loves our police! Thank you for protecting our community!!!
I’m always amazed that from photographs, cell phone and/or CCTV footage, police (here and elsewhere) and detectives can double back and somehow track these goons who mess with people, harm people, rob and kill people and yet, after disappearing into the muck and mire whence they came, they get nabbed….occasionally. Now I just hope the poor victim is willing to go through with pressing charges and to withstand what will be a lengthy and embarrassing trial process…..”embarrassing” because the defense attorney, protecting the rights of these cockroaches, will make it sound like she invited the unwarranted touching….since it’s highly unlikely that the perpetrator will plead guilty. 14 is a young age to have to go through this with the defendants’ family and friends sitting in the courtroom glowering at her as if she did something wrong. That’s one of the things wrong with our system: witnesses and victims should be allowed to give remote testimony and be protected from defendants’ and family comments and disapproving looks for testifying in the first place.
Defense attorneys can still cross-examine them but the victims are in a safe, secure environment and others cannot influence their testimony with malevolent starring and comment passing.