Menace Arrested Near Madison Square Garden; Subway Podophile Busted!

The alleged foot-loving sex pest sought by cops, as reported in last week’s Crime Watch, has been caught. His name is Dexter Betancourt, 37, of Manhattan and he was arrested on June 24 in Brooklyn.

On June 18, Betancourt was at the 6th Avenue L subway station when, according to the criminal complaint, he told a woman, “You have nice toes.”

Betancourt then bowed toward her feet and exposed himself.

“Look how hard you’re making me,” he said, according to prosecutors.

Unsurprisingly, according to the New York Post, the recidivist Betancourt has almost a dozen prior arrests for assault and sex crimes, such as public lewdness, which are not bail-eligible crimes. So why not commit them again?

In 2013, Betancourt was arrested for throwing a 27-year-old woman to the ground and chocking her on the Upper East Side.

In 2012, Betancourt threw a 25-year-old woman to the ground and groped her.

That same year, Betancourt attempted to punch a female cop and dragged her by the neck after she caught him smoking weed—so much for the “mellow,” if then illegal, leaf.

It should be noted that all of these crimes occurred before the bail reform legislation enacted in 2020. It doesn’t appear that Betancourt has served New York state prison time for his prior crimes.

Betancourt is next due in court on August 13.

One Afternoon on the Strip of Despair

Despite their proximity to the glamour of Madison Square Garden and Penn Plaza (and the workaday office of Manhattan’s finest hyperlocal weekly newspaper chain), the four hot corners of Eighth Avenue and 35th Street will not be tamed.

The friendly officers of the NYPD Midtown South Precinct are but half a block away, between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

For a woman at the pointy end of a threatened broad-daylight knife attack, this proximity proved most fortunate. Details are as follows:

On Monday, June 16, at approximately 2:25pm, police responded to a 911 call for a male with a knife at West 35th Street and Eighth Avenue. Upon arrival, cops were told that an individual menaced a 41-year-old female with a knife.

Pursuant to an ongoing investigation, police arrested Carlos Chiclana Ramos, 30-year-old male, with a stated address of 440 W. 57th St., which is that of the Watson Hotel, a flashpoint in the early stages of the migrant crisis of 2022-2023.

In January, Mayor Adams announced that the Watson would cease being a migrant shelter this June.

Video of the arrest, posted by online reporter Leroy Press, shows Ramos in a bright yellow sweatsuit and dyed green hair struggling on the sidewalk as four officers try to cuff him.

Ramos was arraigned on June 17. A day later, following a short spell at Rikers Island, he pled not guilty, and was released by Judge Louis L. Nock on his own recognizance.

Ramos is due back in court on Aug. 6.