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Port Authority police grab sex offender in groping of woman, 20

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A witness helped lead Port Authority police to a registered sex offender who they said groped a young woman waiting for a train at Journal Square before dawn this morning.

Photo Credit: Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD

Joel Perez, 33, was carrying a gravity knife in his pocket when police grabbed him in the station following the 4:40 a.m. incident on the platform, the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

They found the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Perez based on a description given by the victim and a witness, Pentangelo said.

Perez was charged with criminal sexual contact and two weapons counts — one for being a felon in possession of one.

The arrest came about 12 hours after Port Authority police arrested a man at the 9th Street PATH station in Manhattan on charges of public lewdness and stalking.

A 17-year-old girl told them that 28-year-old Ivan Garzon of Maybrook, N.Y., exposed and fondled himself on a moving PATH train, then followed her as she walked into another car to avoid him.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD

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