New York State officials moved Thursday to institute a three-year transit ban for criminals who commit assault or sexual assault on MTA property.
The addition to the state penal code, which is expected to be approved as part of this year’s budget, would prohibit individuals convicted of either assault or unlawful sexual conduct on transit from entering an MTA property for three years or the duration of their probational period, whichever is shorter.
Police and transit officials have pushed for the ban in response to a scourge of repeat subway sex offenders like 61-year-old Freddie Johnson, who was busted for sexual assault for the 36th time last December, just a month after completing an 11-year prison stint for the same offense.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo endorsed the concept in September.
“This new measure will help better protect our millions of customers and employees who while moving around the city should never be subjected to groping, harassment or abuse,” said Ken Lovett, a senior advisor to MTA Chairman Pat Foye.
According to the new law, judges would have discretion to ease or even void the ban if a perp “depends on the authority’s subways, trains, buses, or other conveyances or facilities for trips of necessity” such as work, medical appointments, grocery shopping or school.
Transit and criminal justice advocates oppose the measure, which passed the state senate overwhelmingly Thursday along with the rest of the state budget.
But State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), a longtime champion of banning recidivist transit pervs, criticized the new law as “dealing with it on the back-end.”
“If you were to elevate the crimes from misdemeanor to felony status, you wouldn’t need this post-conviction construct barring these people from using public transit because they wold be in jail,” Savino said, blaming the liberal state Assembly for the gridlock.
“So while this is part of a solution, it still fails to recognize the severity of the crimes that are committed largely against women in the public transit system.”
