UPDATE, October 19, 6:14 p.m.: According to the NYPD, the sexual assault charges against the man suspected of groping a woman's breasts and then masturbating on May 7 in the Seventh Avenue F-train subway station, were dropped on Wednesay.
The victim, a 37-year-old woman, who allegedly picked Joshua Flecha out of a line-up on Monday, recanted and will not work with the cops, police said.
"The arrest was voided because the complaintant had recanted her identification and wouldn't sign the corresponding accusatory instrument," said an NYPD representative.
So Flecha is not the May 7 attacker "according to the victim," police said.
A 32-year-old Queens man busted for pot possession was later identified in a line-up at the Brooklyn Special Victims Unit as a possible suspect for in May, police said.
While patrolling the sex assault pattern area on Monday, police officers from the 76 Precinct drove past a Hispanic man, Joshua Flecha, at 2:30 a.m. on Greenwood Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth avenues. After 45 minutes, the officers saw the same man on 17th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, walking slowly along a line of parked cars.
The police thought Flecha was acting suspicious, thinking he may break into a vehicle. The officers got out of their patrol car, approached Flecha and told him to put his hands on one of the cars.
The police found marijuana on Flecha, whose pants were unzipped, and also saw that his cellphone was playing a pornographic video. The officers also believed that he looked like a suspect tied to one of the sexual assaults that have been plaguing the area since March.
Flecha was later identified in a line-up at the Brooklyn Special Victims Unit as a possible match to the man suspected of the May 7 sexual attack, police said.
On May 7, a man matching Flecha’s description, approached a 37-year-old woman as she swiped her Metro card at the Eighth Avenue entrance of the F train’s Seventh Avenue station, grabbed her breasts, exposed himself and masturbated at around 9 p.m., according to police.
On Tuesday, Flecha will be included in other line-ups for the 19 other incidents of sexual assault.
Police said that there may be as many as four different suspects tied to the pattern of sex crimes in the area, from March 11 to October 13.
Flecha is the second .
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers' website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577.All calls are strictly confidential.
