GREENPOINT — The Guardian Angels "perv busters patrol" have been traipsing around the neighborhood posting fliers warning residents about an accused serial groper even though he's been locked up on Rikers Island for weeks.
On Feb. 22, Greenpoint residents spotted citizen safety patrols with the Angels in their iconic red jackets and berets taping up fliers seeking information about Christopher Boissard, a 25-year-old deaf Greenpoint resident accused of stalking a local mom.
"This accused serial groper has attacked and stalked individuals in Greenpoint undeterred by restraining orders," the flier reads.
It wasn't until several days later — when one of the patrollers ran into Boissard's parents who explained that their son was on Rikers and they were not going to bail him out — that the Angels pulled back, the group's founder Curtis Sliwa said.
"We're satisfied," he said. "He's safe and serving time in detention."
The campaign against Boissard came two weeks after DNAinfo reported that Boissard was being held at Rikers Island, in a story referenced by the Guardian Angel fliers.
Sliwa defended the Guardian Angel's choice to put up fliers about Boissard.
"Just because he's on Rikers Island, at some point he'll be released...He will be going back to that community," Sliwa said. "People have a right to know."
The Guardian Angels' recent campaign didn't sit well with one neighborhood resident, Jennifer Bartlett, 46, who's lived in Greenpoint for 18 years and has known Boissard for the last decade.
"I just wish people would stop and take a look at his situation," Bartlett said, adding that she worried about Boissard having access to a sign language translator while on Rikers Island. Boissard's lawyer claims he does not.
"It's sort of creating hysteria about Christopher who... isn’t even currently in the neighborhood."
