Overview
- The complaint says Ari Shtein, 18, reached into a 30-year-old woman’s underwear and penetrated her with his fingers on June 28 on an uptown R train near 28th Street in Chelsea.
- Manhattan prosecutors charged Shtein with aggravated sexual abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child and he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and released pending the next steps.
- Police say the victim was traveling with children who witnessed the incident, but reports conflict on how many children were present.
- Shtein’s attorney, Priya Chaudhry, has denied the allegations, requested subway surveillance video be released and said the written charges invite skepticism.
- Coverage has highlighted Shtein’s ties to Yale and to a libertarian think tank and the Buckley Beacon removed his masthead bio, raising reputational fallout while key evidence has not been made public and will be central to the case.