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4 Men Arrested For Groping Women in Midtown in 2-Day Spree, Police Say

By Maya Rajamani | December 5, 2016 5:32pm
 One of the victims was on her way to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting when the incident happened, police said.
One of the victims was on her way to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting when the incident happened, police said.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

MIDTOWN — Four men were arrested for groping or rubbing up against women in separate incidents over a two-day span last week — including one teen victim on her way to the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting ceremony at the time, the NYPD said.

In the first attack, on Nov. 30, the 25-year-old victim from Ridgewood, New Jersey, was walking in front of 1625 Broadway in Times Square around 2:30 p.m. when Manuel Franco, 49, of Staten Island, grabbed her crotch as she walked past him, police and a complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.

A few hours later, around 5:10 p.m., an 18-year-old girl from New Jersey was walking to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting near the southwest corner of West 52nd Street and Sixth Avenue with two other people when she thought she felt someone grab her buttocks, the NYPD said.

A police officer at the location said he saw Glen Jones, 46, bend down and repeatedly rub up against the girl’s buttocks, a complaint filed with the DA’s office said.

After the 18-year-old moved away from Jones, he moved forward and rubbed up against her again, the complaint said.

A day later, around 5:10 p.m. on Dec. 1, a 17-year-old girl from Olean, New York, was walking near Rockefeller Center when a police officer inside the building saw Carlos Pauta, 31, walk behind the girl for around 40 yards staring at her buttocks, a complaint filed with the DA’s office said.

The officer then saw Pauta rub up against the girl’s buttocks and grope her twice, the complaint added.

Pauta, who was charged with two counts of forcible touching and one count of sexual abuse, was released without bail on Dec. 2 and is next expected to appear in court on Jan. 26, the DA’s office said.

Jones, who was arrested and charged with forcible touching and sexual abuse, was released without bail and is next expected to appear in court on Dec. 21, the DA’s office said.

Franco was arrested and charged with forcible touching and sexual abuse, and is currently being held at the Manhattan Detention Complex on $1,000 bail, according to the DA’s office and city Department of Correction records.

He was previously convicted of second degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon from a 1997 arrest, and released in 2005. He was arrested again in 2014 for attempted robbery and was released on parole in May 2016, according to state DOC records.

He was expected to appear in court for his recent charges on Monday, DOC records show.

Meanwhile, a former traffic enforcement agent was arrested on Dec. 1 for rubbing up against four different women in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, prosecutors and sources said.

An attorney for Pauta declined to comment, and attorneys for Jones and Franco did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.