Slam the jail door on him!
Pros: Yes, cops can bust XXX concierge
Police should be able to bust the Manhattan doorman accused of sexting pictures of his penis to female residents at the building where he worked, legal experts say — dismissing cops’ claims that they can’t do anything.
Several victims at the Tudor City Place residence say police told them it would be too hard to tie Jonathon Aviles to the lewd texts, which they say he sent from an app that masked his real number.
But a lawyer who specializes in revenge-porn cases told The Post that the app, TextMe, routinely turns over user information such as IP addresses, e-mail accounts and text logs to authorities.
“As long as they have a court order, they’ll turn over the information that’s being requested,” said the lawyer, Daniel Szalkiewicz.
“In one case we had earlier this year, our client was being harassed by an exgirlfriend and we were able to receive enough information from TextMe to identify the culprit,” he added.
Former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mark Bederow agreed, noting the women deduced that Aviles was the one sending them the twisted texts because he shared photos showing his distinctive tattoos — and cops could easily make the same match.
“The cops could seek guidance from the DA and subpoena the app user records, obtain a warrant for his phone and a court order allowing a ‘search’ of his body to establish whether the tattoo matches the one from the photo,” Bederow said.
“There certainly appears to be enough information to investigate further and consider criminal charges.”
The NYPD has told The Post that forcing women to look at photos of one’s penis is just a violation involving harassment and not an “arrestable offense.”
A police official said Tuesday that the department received three complaints about Aviles’ texts but that only one is still under investigation.
One of the women says the doorman continued to harass her even after she told him to stop and blocked his number — which Bederow says could rise to the level of misdemeanor stalking.
She made a report to cops Friday and says a detective called her Tuesday with more questions — but she isn’t holding her breath.
“He said they’re working on it,” said the 35-year-old, who didn’t want to give her name. “I don’t feel very hopeful. It sounds like they don’t have a lot of information.”
But even the violation — second-degree harassment — could put the perp in jail for up to 15 days, and the situation is serious enough to warrant a through investigation, according to Bederow.
“In NYC, a doorman is in the quintessential position of trust and essential to the safety of residents,” he said.
Aviles was fired from his job last week after the building management confirmed the tattoos in the sexts were his — but he was walking around a free man in his Benshonhurst, Brooklyn, neighborhood on Tuesday.
It’s a New York woman’s nightmare: Someone’s texting you obscene photos and harassing messages — and it turns out he got your name and number because he’s one of your doormen . . . which means he has also had access to your apartment. But the NYPD doesn’t seem to be taking the case all that seriously.
Happily, the victims themselves provided enough information that managers of the Tudor City Place co-op building were able to identify and fire the creepy concierge. And Post reporters were even able to track Jonathon Aviles down at his home in Bensonhurst, where he invoked his privacy rights, demanding, “You need to leave the premises.”
Three of his five known victims have gone to the police, but say they’ve been told cops can’t do much, since Aviles denies the accusations and used an app to mask his own number. One victim even says a detective told her the case was closed.
Hmm. A lawyer who specializes in revenge-porn cases, Daniel Szalkiewicz, tells The Post that he’s managed to subpoena TextMe (the app in question) for user info in the past. And a former prosecutor notes that Aviles also texted pics with his distinctive chest tattoo, which cops could also match.
Does the NYPD have a cultural problem here? Back in March, the Department of Investigation found it had badly understaffed its sex-crimes unit and failed to treat acquaintance- and domestic-rape cases as seriously as stranger-rape ones. (The NYPD vehemently disputed those claims.)
Police say their Aviles investigation is continuing, though all the allegations to date only add up to a violation — harassment in the second degree — not a felony, so he can’t be arrested.
Perhaps detectives are developing evidence that will allow an arrest. (The Post is reporting that one victim now says Aviles continued the harassment even after being asked to stop — which could upgrade the offense to stalking.) Maybe they’re seeking a subpoena of TextMe, or other means of getting a hard ID.
We certainly hope so, because it’d be outrageous to just give this guy a pass.