Lineup in Tribeca assault Police arrested Ishmael Alvarado, 40, at a unisex dressing area at American Apparel, 121 Spring St. at about 6:20 p.m. Sun., Dec. 2 and charged him with public lewdness for pulling his pants down and exposing his genitals to store customers. Dep. Insp. Anthony Bologna, the First Precinct’s commanding officer, told Downtown Express that the suspect closely resembles a police sketch of a man who sexually molested a 12-year-old girl in the vicinity of Walker and Church St. in Tribeca on Nov. 13, but the girl did not pick him out of a lineup.
Bologna said after looking at a photo of Alvarado and the sketch, he thought it was one of the closest matches to a police sketch he had ever seen. Alvarado, who has a record of sexual offenses according to a police source, is free on $750 bail pending a Feb. 6 court appearance. Alvarado is registered as a level 1 sex offender, the lowest level, according to the district attorney’s office.
Fatal Soho fire The resident of a third floor apartment on Sullivan St. south of Houston St., died in a fire that started at about 2 a.m. Sat., Dec.15 and raged through his apartment for 40 minutes, according to fire department and police sources.
Richard Seidel, 65, a former musician and film archivist, was declared dead at the scene shortly after firefighters and an Emergency Medical Unit team arrived, according to police. A fire department source said that careless smoking was a likely cause of the fire. Seidel, a resident of the building for more than 30 years, lived alone.
Downtown robbery Two muggers attacked a 71-year-old New Jersey man in a passageway in the Wall St. (4,5) subway station at Broadway at 12:20 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 13, punched him in the face and took his cell phone and a wallet containing $1,500 in cash and a New Jersey Transit ticket, police said. Both suspects were described as black men and one of them was about 25, 6 ft. and 220 pounds.
Hotel robbery Police arrested Ashley Thomas, 30, on Dec. 2 and Charles Alarcon, 20, on Dec. 11 in connection with the Nov. 26 theft of about $50,000 from a safe at the Hotel on Rivington near Ludlow St. While Thomas distracted the manager, Alarcon entered through an employee entrance, stole keys from a safe behind the reception desk, and opened a safe where the cash was kept, the complaint says. The defendants, both of Queens, are free on bail pending court dates in March.
Bank robber A man walked into the Chase Bank branch at 525 Broadway at Spring St. at 12:10 p.m. Tues., Dec. 11, and passes a note written on a deposit slip that said, “LARGE DENOMINATIONS ONLY” and told the teller, “Hurry up or I’ll shoot everyone in the place.” The teller passed him a stack of one-dollar bills totaling $106 and the thief, described only as a black man, 5’8” and 140 pounds, fled west on Spring St.
Soho burglary A couple left their basement apartment at 171 Sixth Ave. at Vandam St. at 8 a.m. Thurs., Dec. 13 and returned at 6 p.m. to discover that a window bar had been bent in the grate in front of a window they had left open and a laptop computer, an iPod and about $100 in coins had been stolen, police said.
— Albert Amateau
