Park Slope Man Arraigned On Groping Charges

On Friday, a Park Slope man initially arrested for groping at least three women in Manhattan between February and March of this year was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court. 26 year-old Slope resident and Bible Study host Karl Vanderwoude is being charged with two counts of forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse.

Via the NY Daily News:

He was charged with grabbing a 19-year-old woman’s buttocks on Feb. 27 at Second Ave. and E. 67th St.

Then on March 30, he touched the buttocks of a 22-year-old woman at Centre and Chambers Sts. near City Hall and appeared to use his cell phone to record images under her skirt, according to the criminal complaint.

The defense lawyer said the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute a third charge filed by cops. Vanderwoude initially was charged in a Feb. 26 groping.

The Michigan native was arrested after a tipster pointed him out (presumably after seeing surveillance photos), and was later identified in a line-up by some of the victims.

Karl Vanderwoude's lawyer told the NY Daily News that the surveillance photos don't mean shit. "There was nothing in my mind distinguishing about those photos at all," she said. "He looks no different than any well-dressed, dark-haired man in his 30s in New York."

"I don’t believe it’s him," Vanderwoude's landlady added. "To me he doesn’t have to grope anybody. All he has to do is wink and they’d go chasing him."

We'll keep you posted as more news trickles in.