A man exposed himself to children playing at Prospect Park’s Imagination Playground on Wednesday, but police let him go with a slap on the wrist after the nanny who spotted him refused to press charges, according to a mommy blogger who frequents the play space.
“They gave him a ticket, and he literally walked away,” said Anna, a Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident and the author of parenting blog Mom Within Reach, who requested her last name be omitted for fear of reprisal. “I’m not going back there for a little bit.”
The mom was inside the playground near Ocean Avenue and the LeFrak Center at Lakeside with her 1-year-old daughter at 1 pm, when she and the au pair from Spain spotted the man enter it alone — a misdemeanor offense according to city law, which states adults can only enter childrens’ playgrounds accompanied by youngsters under the age of 12.
The mommy blogger said she then ran towards a nearby police car in an attempt to get the cops to shoo the guy away, but the vehicle peeled off, and as she was walking back to the playground, the nanny hysterically ran out of it claiming the man started to fondle himself.
“The au pair runs out waving for help, and she said he pulled down his pants and started masturbating,” Anna said.
The women immediately called 911, according to the mom, who said they flagged down another squad car minutes later, and that police cornered the man shortly thereafter.
But the au pair, worried that getting involved in a criminal investigation might interfere with her legal status in the United States, refused to press charges, and cops let the man walk away with a summons for being in the playground without a kid, the mom said.
“She was like, I’m not from here, I don’t want to have any issues with the police,” Anna said. “I tried to tell her New York City is a sanctuary city, but she didn’t know anything about that.”
A Police Department spokeswoman said the man’s violation requires him to appear before criminal court on July 18.
