A Brooklyn man was arrested last week by a detective from the Queens Special Victims Squad who joined in a forcible touching investigation out of the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood.
Kadeem Laguerre, 27, of East 15th Street in Bensonhurst, was arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and charged with first-degree sexual abuse for spitting on a 12-year-old girl who was walking near the intersection of 71st Street and 54th Avenue in Maspeth just after 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20.
Laguerre allegedly ran off after groping the young girl, police said. EMS responded to the scene and transported the victim to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
Laguerre was arraigned Friday in Queens Criminal Court, where he was additionally charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He allegedly spat on her hair, neck, and chest and then touched her face and buttocks with his hands repeatedly, according to the criminal complaint. The incident was caught on video surveillance
After he was arrested by Queens SVU, Laguerre was shown a still photo from the video surveillance and allegedly told the detective, “This is me, on my way to work,” according to the complaint.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office requested $20,000 bail during his arraignment before Judge Maria Gonzalez. She set bail at $7,000 cash and $15,000 bond.
The DA’s Office and Queens SUV are still investigating the case and have specially trained professionals who can speak to young victims in a safe environment. Anyone who may have had any type of contact with Kadeem Laguerre can contact the NYPD’s Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-646-267-RAPE (7273). The NYPD is asking any other victims to come forward by calling the NYPD’s Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-646-610-7273.
Anyone with information regarding this ongoing investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through Sept. 22, the 104th Precinct has reported 27 sex crimes so far in 2024, 21 fewer than the 48 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 50.9%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
