A man arrested for trying to rape a woman in a Brooklyn train station earlier this week was in jail for almost a year before the state’s new bail reform laws allowed him to go free and allegedly commit more crimes, the Daily News has learned.
Arjun Tyler, 20, was busted late Friday on charges he beat and sexually assaulted a 31-year-old woman at the 95th St. station in Bay Ridge last week, as well as for several thefts he allegedly committed in recent days.
But an NYPD source said Tyler wasn’t charged with sexual assault at his arraignment late Sunday because prosecutors wanted to first interview the victim, who couldn’t be located. Police, however, remain convinced Tyler is the attacker, the source said. An officer who had previously arrested him identified him from the wanted poster, and he was also ID’d on a security video.
“The attempted rape is still under investigation,” a spokesman for the district attorney said.
Tyler had been sitting in a holding cell on Rikers Island — unable to pay $20,000 bail on a series of crimes he allegedly committed in 2018 — until last Dec. 19. His case was reviewed under the state’s new bail reform laws and he was set free, court documents and sources with knowledge of the case said.
As soon as he stepped out of jail, cops grabbed him in connection with a robbery in Sunset Park in 2018, but the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office deferred prosecution while it sought to collect more evidence.
In the attempted rape case, authorities said Tyler, wearing a ski mask, allegedly trailed a woman into the bathroom at the 95th St. station around 10:15 a.m. last Monday. He repeatedly punched her in the face and tried to pull down her leggings, but her screams for help caught the attention of a homeless man near the token booth, authorities said.
When the good Samaritan banged on the door, Tyler scrambled out of the bathroom and ran out of the station.
Cops identified the would-be rapist as Tyler through video that caught him after he had taken off the mask, authorities said.
Tyler had been arrested nearly a dozen times in Brooklyn and Manhattan before his incarceration in 2018, sources said. He was busted for forcible touching that February, they noted.
He remained free until Friday around 10 p.m., when cops caught him allegedly stealing $120 from a laundromat on 14th Ave. near New Utrecht Ave. in Bensonhurst.
Once he was in custody, cops charged him for a litany of crimes: the Bay Ridge sex assault; the 2018 robbery for which he’d never been arrested; and taking $1,100 from a cash register at an 86th St. restaurant and illegally entering an 18th Ave. building, both of which took place on Jan. 13, officials said.
The Legal Aid society confirmed that it applied for Tyler to be released under the bail reform law, as it does for all of its eligible clients.
“Bail reform has already worked to free thousands of New Yorkers, many of whom could not afford to buy their freedom, from pretrial detention back to their families, communities, and essential services,” Legal Aid said in a statement.
“Mr. Tyler — who has no criminal record — is presumed innocent, and these charges are merely allegations. Counsel has yet to receive any discovery on this case,” the statement continued. “We urge the public not to draw any conclusions based on a narrative being peddled by law enforcement in an attempt to undermine the new pretrial reforms.”
The Brooklyn DA’s office did not immediately comment.
