Man-spreading commuter is cleared of performing a sex act on the New York subway as court accepts he was merely ‘well-endowed’
- Kosta Kolaci, 61, was arrested on suspicion of public lewdness and harassment
- Another passenger filmed him appearing to touch himself in a subway car
- Kolaci was acquitted after his lawyer argued he was merely ‘adjusting’ himself
A man has been cleared of masturbating in public by a New York court after they accepted his defense that he was merely well-endowed and adjusting himself.
Kosta Kolaci, 61, was arrested in April on suspicion of public lewdness and harassment after a fellow passenger on the subway shot a video appearing to show him touching himself on an early morning train.
But Kolaci was cleared on Friday after a brief trial at Brooklyn Criminal Court, in which he argued that he had no recollection of the supposed April 9 incident, when he was returning from a construction job.
Kosta Kolaci, 61, was arrested in April on suspicion of public lewdness and harassment after a fellow passenger on the subway shot a video appearing to show him touching himself
In the video, filmed between 59th St. station in Sunset Park and Coney Island, Alethia Richardson, 32, films the man sat opposite her ‘pleasuring himself’ and then says into the camera: ‘Disrespect. Nasty. Pervert.’
Twice in the video Kolaci appears to be touching his genitals for around 10 seconds.
Richardson took the footage to the police, saying she was ‘extremely upset’ after seeing Kolaci ‘grab and rub his crotch area’. He was later charged.
According to a police report, ‘she observed that the man’s penis was erect and appeared to be almost protruding from his pants.’
Defense attorney Cary London successfully protested his client’s innocence, citing the fact that he never unzipped his pants or exposed himself.
He even went so far as to say the accuser was guilty of being ‘enamored’ by Kolaci’s crotch.
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‘The fact that Mr. Kolaci may have a big penis that this woman was enamored with from sitting across from him does not make him guilty of a crime,’ London said Friday in his closing argument, according to the New York Post.
‘This is someone minding his own business who happens to have a penis.’
London claimed that the fact that Kolaci and Richardson were the only two passengers in the subway car, yet Richardson did not move seats, was evidence that she ‘wanted to make a situation out of something that wasn’t.’
One source familiar with the case said the Judge Elizabeth Warin based her ruling not on Kolaci’s ‘well-endowed’ defense, but on the fact that she did not find his conduct lewd enough to convict him.
However, the exposure of private parts is not always necessary for prosecution under the public lewdness law.
However a judge found his conduct was not lewd enough to convict him, after his lawyer argued that he did not expose himself and was merely adjusting his ‘well-endowed’ private parts
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office used about three minutes of the video in court, in which Kolaci is seen ‘manspreading’ across a two-person bench, occasionally looking over at Richardson.
Kolaci was arrested in April at a Brooklyn subway station after police noticed him tearing down wanted posters with his face on – a still taken from Richardson’s video.
The New York Post reported that he told Police at the time: ‘This is me and I’ve already taken care of this case.’
Kolaci is still in federal custody facing a deportation order to his native Albania that was triggered by his arrest.
According to the Post, he is at Hudson County Correctional Facility, but hopes the acquittal will mean he can stay in Brooklyn.
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