No suspect has been apprehended or identified for fondling a female student in the Student Activities courtyard last month. Despite several good leads, Public Safety Director Baycan Fideli said that they led to nowhere. Fideli explained that you need to be very sure before accusing anyone of anything. “If somebody said that might be the person, you can’t accuse people of things they didn’t do, so you must be very careful.” He also said that there is no relation between this incident and the two public lewdness incidents that occurred at the beginning of the semester.
The fondler and the victim did not know each other according to Fideli. He said a possible theory is that a person of the College Community, read the safety alert, and stopped themselves from doing anything else criminal. This is just the theory though, and Public Safety doesn’t know who it could’ve been.
The incident occurred on Monday, October 14th at around 3:30 p.m. A female student reported an unknown male touched her buttocks as she was walking from the Sagtikos Arts and Sciences building. The suspect fled the scene immediately after. An alert was sent out by Public Safety four hours later. There was no security camera footage of the suspect or the incident.
Criminal fondling, known legally as forcible touching, is the touching of another person’s private parts without their consent. Forcible touching is a class A misdemeanor. According to §130.52 of the New York Penal Code, forcible touching can involve:
1. Forcibly touching the sexual or intimate parts of another person, for the purpose of degrading or abusing such person, or for the purpose of gratifying the perpetrator’s sexual desire; or..
2. Subjecting another person to sexual contact for the purpose of gratifying the perpetrator’s sexual desire and with the intent to degrade or abuse the other person on a New York State transportation service.
The suspect was described as a black male, 23-24 years old, with facial hair, wearing a white shirt, brown belt, and white Apple headphones with a wire. Public Safety believes this suspect did not commit the lewd acts of September.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Public Safety at 631-451-4242 or 311 from any campus phone. Students and staff are urged to remain vigilant and take precautions by reporting suspicious activity and using the college’s Rave Guardian app for emergency responses. For immediate assistance, contact Public Safety or dial 911 in case of emergency.
