A Brooklyn lawyer who turned out to be Manhattan’s notorious serial “Gentleman Groper” got a wrist-slap, no-jail sentence today that may let him even keep his law license.
Paul Kraft, 31, had pleaded guilty in March to a string of five between-the-leg gropings of random pedestrian women, disturbing attacks committed throughout the Upper East Side and lower Manhattan in February and March last year.
The creepy crime wave earned headlines last year, when sidewalk surveillance footage showed the same dapper-dressed suspect doing all the grabbing.
The first “Gentleman Groper” collared last year turned out to be the wrong man — a well-dressed but innocent Bible-study leader.
Kraft was busted in December, and admitted forcibly grabbed the buttocks or genital areas of the women as they walked on the Upper East Side and downtown on Varick Street, Broad Street, and outside the Municipal Building on Centre Street.
Prosecutors had cited Kraft’s lack of criminal history and that he had taken responsibility for his actions in agreeing to the plea deal and dismissing the top count of unlawful surveillance — for his allegedly putting his cell phone under the skirt of the women who’d been walking on Centre Street.
Under today’s sentence, Kraft will go once a week for 18-months to the Brooklyn-based “Mustard Seed” program, a sexual impulse therapy program.
As icing on the cake, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Kevin McGrath agreed to sign a certificate of release from civil disabilities, which may allow him to ultimately keep his law license.
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