A man who pulled out his penis and started stroking it in front of a woman on a New York City subway, then pulled a gun on a man who followed him while recording, telling the man to “turn around and mind your own fucking business,” turned out to be a retired NYPD cop.
Steven Esposito ended up arrested because the short video the man recorded was posted on several New York City news sites, urging readers to contact police if they recognized him.
Although Esposito admitted to pulling out his penis, he claims he was only peeing on the subway platform in Midtown, not masturbating.
So either way, we can refer to him as the Midtown Masturbator or Esposito the Exposer, depending on which story you believe.
The 56-year-old retired cop, who admitted to pulling out his gun on the man, was charged with misdemeanor public lewdness and menacing on Wednesday.
He was released without bail and is scheduled back in court on December 1, according to DNA Info.
Although New York City has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, Esposito is allowed to carry a gun after he obtained “good guy letter” from his former agency.
He is also probably collecting a pension, which means the NYPD cannot distance themselves from him as much as they would like.
And it’s not like it’s rare for a cop to be caught masturbating or exposing themselves in public.
Last month, a San Jose cop and a Boston cop were arrested for masturbating in public in coast-to-coast incidents.
And last year, a New Jersey cop named Benito Gonzalez was arrested for masturbating in a Starbucks, pleading guilty earlier this year to lewdness charges before he was allowed to retire.
And another New Jersey cop named Jason Miller was arrested earlier this year for pulling men over, walking up to their cars and placing his exposed genitals in their faces before letting them go without writing a ticket.
Miller accepted a misdemeanor plea deal that did not require him to register as a sex offender.
Also last year, a Los Angeles police officer named Ryan Eric Galliher was arrested after he was seen walking up to several victims, pulling down his pants and exposing himself.
In the latest case out of New York City, Esposito is accused of hissing at a woman, prompting her to turn and look, which was when she saw him masturbating.
The 38-year-old woman began crying, drawing the attention of a 41-year-old man who asked her what was wrong.
When she told him, that man began chasing Esposito out of the subway station, pulling out his phone to record.
The eight-second video does not show Esposito pulling out a gun, but not only did he admit to it, it should have been captured on surveillance video.
