He’s busted as pervert & pusher
Caught after actress’ subway nightmare
POLICE BUSTED a 24-year-old parolee Sunday who they say groped an actress on a Greenwich Village subway platform — and then pushed her onto the tracks.
Cops charged Kimani Stephenson with attempted murder, assault and sex abuse at 3 p.m. Sunday, a few hours after nabbing him at his home in the Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side.
Cops were led to his home by a tip after releasing surveillance photos of the suspect hours after the Friday attack on the F train platform at 14th St. Police then released video early Saturday.
Victim Bonnie Currie described the attacker as a man in an orange jacket, and surveillance video showed only one person — Stephenson — with an orange-colored jacket walking onto and off the subway platform at the time of the attack, according to a criminal complaint.
Currie was transferring to the 1 train when she was attacked.
“He came up behind me and he grabbed one of my boobs with one hand and he grabbed my vagina,” she told the Daily News on Friday. “I told him to f--- off and he pushed me onto the train tracks.”
After three shocked fellow straphangers helped her back onto the platform, she was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she underwent wrist surgery. She was also treated for a torn ligament in her left shoulder and a bruised femur.
“It’s that nightmare every woman has in New York — and it happened,” Currie, 22, said of the attack.
Stephenson looked disheveled Sunday night as he was led, handcuffed, into Manhattan Criminal Court for his arraignment. He wore a stained black long-sleeved shirt and gray sweatpants with holes in them.
“This does not appear to be a particularly strong case in regards to evidence, it is only based on surveillance footage that does not show the assault,” said his Legal Aid lawyer, Anyika Nance.
Stephenson was ordered held without bail.
After hearing of the arrest, Currie told The News on Sunday she was deeply grateful to the cops who worked her case, calling them “true heroes.”
She took aim at people who have shamed her over the attack.
“I would like to address anyone who has tried to tell me that this attack was my fault, and I asked for it by being a woman alone after a night out with friends,” she said.
“You are part of the problem, and a big reason why victims stay silent and attackers run free. The only person responsible for the actions of an attack is the attacker, end of story.”
She had a message for victims who are reluctant to speak out.
“Do not let random, judgmental strangers who have no idea what they’re talking about shame you into silence,” she said. “Find the strength to seek justice for yourself and hopefully prevent your attacker from harming others in the future. Rise up, speak out, and go take them down.” UNITED Airlines just can’t seem to fly under the radar.
A Utah couple say they were booted Saturday from a Houston flight bound for Costa Rica, where they’re getting married, after they changed seats without permission — the latest public relations headache for the bedeviled company.
Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell — whose destination wedding is set for Thursday — boarded Flight 1737 along with friends to find a napping man sprawled across their assigned seats, 24B and 24C, they told local TV affiliate KHOU. They relocated to empty seats three rows up, 21B and 21C, with Hohl saying they were “simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat” on the apparently half-full flight.
Hohl said that after a flight attendant told them to return to their assigned seats, the couple did — only to be told to leave by another official. They left the aircraft without incident, according to the report.
“They said that we were being disorderly and a hazard to the rest of the flight, to the safety of the other customers,” Hohl said.
United offered a different account in a statement KHOU obtained. “These passengers repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating which they did not purchase and they would not follow crew instructions to return to their assigned seats,” the airline said. “We’ve been in touch with them and have rebooked them.”Last week, a bloodied Dr. David Dao was hauled off a flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., as horrified passengers recorded the incident.