Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Tabloids Sow More Bail Reform Confusion, Claiming Laws Set Man "Free To Rape"
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 3, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
JB Nicholas / Gothamist
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 3, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
On Sunday afternoon, the Daily News and the Post both ran stories portraying the state's bail reform laws as the reason a man was able to commit an assault and attempted rape in Bay Ridge. "Set free to rape: Suspect busted in train station sex assault was freed through state’s new bail reform laws," read the Daily News headline. Like other newspaper coverage that aims to connect the bail reform laws with a public safety crisis, the truth is actually more complicated. As of late Monday afternoon, the man has not been charged with any crime related to the alleged sexual assault, and his attorneys said that he was never arrested on any sex charges to begin with.
The tabloid stories, citing unnamed sources, claimed that 20-year-old Arjun Tyler was arrested on Friday night and charged with the attempted rape.
Last Monday morning, a 31-year-old woman said that a man followed her into a restroom at the 95th Street R stop in Bay Ridge, punched her in the face, and "attempted to force himself on the victim at which time the victim screamed for help," according to a statement the police sent out last week. The unnamed sources said that police had charged Tyler with this crime, among others.
In late December, in anticipation of the new bail reforms, Tyler had been released from Rikers Island after being held for months on pending robbery charges.
“Inaction by the governor is no different than him holding down the hands of a victim while they’re being raped, robbed and, in some cases, murdered,” Ed Mullins, the head of the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, told the Post for their story on Tyler's arrest, referring to Governor Andrew Cuomo's support of the bail reform laws.
Asked what Tyler was charged with when he was arrested, the NYPD declined to say, and referred us to the office of Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez. The DA's office said that Tyler was picked up on Friday night for stealing $120 from a laundromat in Bensonhurst, and is also being charged with stealing $1,100 from a Bath Beach store on January 13.
“In a desperate attempt to fear monger over the new bail laws, the NYPD arrested our young client and threw him to the wolves without first investigating the alleged incident," said Marie Ndiaye, supervising attorney of the Decarceration Project at the Legal Aid Society. "Mr. Tyler was detained for 40 hours, paraded out of a precinct and walked in front of press which led to him being erroneously accused by two local tabloids of a serious crime. After a careful review of documentation provided to us by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and based on NYPD paperwork, Mr. Tyler was not arrested on, and has not been charged with, any sex offense. Period."
Ndiaye added, "This is a new low for the New York City Police Department, which seems to be more concerned with leaking cases to the press to malign the new bail reforms then with getting basic case facts correct."
Tyler also faces other charges from 2018: being part of a duo who punched and robbed a man of his headphones and iPhone in Sunset Park, breaking into apartments and stealing iPads and other electronics.
Tyler, who has never been convicted of a crime, hasn't been charged in connection with the Bay Ridge assault, according to the DA's office—that case is still under investigation. He is being held on $75,000 bail for the Sunset Park robbery from 2018, because second degree felony robbery with injury is an offense that triggers bail under the new laws (and because the Brooklyn DA had deferred prosecution until now).
On Monday afternoon, the Daily News published a new story without "rape" in the headline that acknowledge that Tyler hadn't been charged in the incident ("Police remain convinced Tyler is responsible for the attack," the story notes, citing another unnamed source).
In a statement, Bay Ridge State Senator Andrew Gounardes said that New Yorkers "deserve better than some of the false, sensationalized, and misleading coverage of bail reform." Gounardes has pushed for two changes to the current law: making hate crimes one of the offenses that allow judges to consider bail, and allowing judges to require mental health or substance abuse evaluations as a condition of bail.
"There's no excuse for the outrageous Daily News headline that led people to fear that the individual was on the streets, when in fact he was detained. There are legitimate conversations to be had about public safety which are happening in Albany and these misleading attacks only impede the conversation," Gounardes said.
The current reforms prevent judges from setting bail on almost all misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, but violent crimes and some lower level charges involving domestic violence are still bail eligible. Judges must consider a defendant's risk of not returning to court, and the least restrictive conditions for every defendant, including those accused of violent felonies that are still eligible for bail. But judges may also set supervised release requirements, including electronic monitoring.
"Part of the problem with criminal justice policy is that we're so used to making policy based on headlines, fear, and emotion, rather than facts and reality, and what justice actually requires—we've kind of lost our way," said Vincent Southerland, an NYU law professor and the executive director of NYU's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. Southerland was one of 45 legal experts who signed a letter to the NY Press Club last week condemning the hyperbolic coverage surrounding bail reform.
"Ultimately what they're saying is, anybody we ever arrest should never be set free, period, because that is the logical conclusion," said Steve Zeidman, a law professor at CUNY and the director of the school's Criminal Defense Clinic. "What if the judge had set bail and the person made the bail five days later and did this, they would say, 'Oh, he should have been remanded.' What if he was remanded and the case was dismissed after six months, they would have said, 'Oh he should have gotten ten years.' There's a fallacy in the logic where ultimately what it leads to is when the police arrest someone they should never see the light of day."
Southerland pointed out that the reforms had only been in place for a little more than a month.
"It's shocking to me that people who are seeking to advance the criminal legal system, and make it a more progressive, more fair system, can advocate for decades, point to the myriad harms its been causing in communities, point to the thousands of clients they've represented in court who have been held in custody because they can't afford bail, point to how harmful that system is for everyone involved, and spend all the time and energy to get the law changed," Southerland said. "And then in a course of a couple of weeks, law enforcement types can cherry pick statistics and data that's not even rooted in reality, and try and upend reforms that haven't even had a chance to actually work yet."
Southerland added, "We have to give reform a chance to work."
A few hours after they published their first story on Tyler, the Daily News ran another crime story: off-duty NYPD Detective Joel Crooms was arrested for violating an order of protection for seeing his 11-year-old daughter in Queens. That protection order was created after Crooms was arrested for beating his daughter with a belt. According to the Queens DA's office, Crooms was released from custody on Sunday, despite the fact that criminal contempt in the 2nd degree is a bail eligible offense. A spokesperson said that "bail is set at the discretion of the court," and that the Queens ADA consented to Crooms being released. Absent from the Daily News story is any mention of bail reform.
This story has been updated to include more information on the case of Joel Crooms.
Tagged
nypd
brooklyn
Bail reform
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Gatorade recall affects drinks sold in New York and New Jersey
More than 122,000 cases are being recalled over undeclared food dyes.
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Oct 5, 2026 at 4:36 p.m. ET
Gov. Hochul declares upstate NY measles outbreak a ‘disaster emergency’
The declaration is driven by rising case counts in rural areas and in neighboring Pennsylvania.
By
Caroline Lewis
News
Gov. Hochul declares upstate NY measles outbreak a ‘disaster emergency’
The declaration is driven by rising case counts in rural areas and in neighboring Pennsylvania.
By
Caroline Lewis
NYPD detective forced to retire after false statements in Brooklyn investigation
By
Charles Lane
Mamdani faces pressure to forge ahead with plan to fix polluting South Bronx market
By
Elizabeth Kim
Dominican man who shot border patrol officer in NYC sentenced to 15 years in prison
By
Samantha Max
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .