Too close for comfort - criminally close - on NYC subway

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

New York City subway train

/ Spencer Plat/Getty Images via CBS New York

(CBS) NEW YORK - The crime is sometimes referred to as "subway grinding." Victims say the punishment for doing it isn't harsh enough.

The lewd act involves rubbing up against unassuming subway riders, and some city lawmakers are demanding tougher penalties, CBS New York reports.

A Bronx man recently convicted of doing it to three young women - even ejaculating on them -did not get prison time because of a 2008 ruling from New York's Supreme Court.

A 29-year-old man was charged with "forcible compulsion" after he grinded on a 14-year-old.

But the Court of Appeals ruled the man did not use force, so the charge was downgraded from first-degree sex abuse to a misdemeanor, setting a precedent women said is just not right.

"Even though he's not using force in a conventional sense, it is a forceful act of abuse against women," said Upper West Side resident Mary Coudal.

Coudal said she still can't shake what happened to her on the subway years ago.

"It was very embarrassing for me, but I said, 'Excuse me, I want everyone on this car to know this gentleman was just rubbing up against me,'" Coudal told CBS New York.

Coudal was pregnant at the time.

City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. said he wants to put the violators on a sex offenders' list.

"The judges are wrong. They're up in an ivory tower. They're not a 14-year-old girl pinned in a train having this happen to her," Vallone said. "But we shouldn't rely on them. Albany (home to the state legislature) needs to write a law to fit this crime."

Last year, the New York Senate passed a measure that would make grinding a felony for repeat offenders, but the Assembly struck it down.

The bill's sponsors plan to try again this year.

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