A teenager busted for allegedly groping a woman with kids on the subway and saying “my bad” is a Yale student who once rallied against sexual harassment training, sources said Thursday — as his high-profile lawyer insisted he’s innocent and called the victim “unhinged.”
Ari Shtein, 18 — who was freed by a judge after being charged with using his fingers to penetrate a 30-year-old victim as a group of kids watched on a Manhattan R train last week — is an aspiring journalist who once wrote an opinion piece calling sex abuse training on the Ivy League campus pointless.
“Sometime during our first couple weeks on campus, all freshmen were made to spend an hour and a half in a sex harassment training,” he wrote in the student-run Buckley Beacon newspaper in October.
“What exactly was the point of participation in this program…Was there anyone in that room who planned to go around harassing and assaulting their classmates without the understanding that it would be wrong to do so?” he wrote in the article, titled Cut the Fat.
“Mandatory sexual misconduct trainings …[are] pretty good at convincing people that comments like ‘you look good in your jeans’ are always inappropriate harassment,” he wrote.
The student is originally from Michigan and has retained high-profile attorney, Priya Chaudhry, whose past clients include “Creed III” actor Jonathan Majors and Real Housewife Jen Shah. She denied the allegations Thursday.
“Every strap-hanger has encountered unhinged people on the subway. Unfortunately, when Ari visited our city, it was his turn. Ari did not assault anyone. He was visiting bookstores with a friend when his life was turned upside down by a woman who falsely accused him of a vile crime,” Chaudhry told The Post Thursday.
Shtein is accused of putting two fingers inside the unidentified woman’s vagina as he stood behind her on an uptown R in Chelsea on June 28, according to police.
“My bad, didn’t know you were going to react that way,” Shtein allegedly told her after she recoiled in horror, according to police sources.
The victim was traveling with four kids, ranging in age from 7 to 11, at the time of the sexual abuse, police and prosecutors said.
Shtein describes himself online as fan of “classical liberalism,” who writes about “philosophy” and “politics” for the Yale Daily News and at Yale’s The Buckley Beacon.
A bio listing him as the opinion editor of The Beacon was yanked from the paper’s masthead after news of his arrest broke Wednesday.
“He will no longer be volunteering at The Beacon,” spokesman for the paper told The Post Thursday.
Shtein is spending his summer working at the Washington DC-based libertarian think tank, Reason, where he has written articles titled, “Trump’s Trade War Caused a $15 Billion Decline in U.S. Farm Sales to China” and “ New Study Finds Average College Professor ‘Only Slightly Less Left’ Than Bernie Sanders” in recent weeks.
On his blog, he declares, “I write about whatever I think about. Some philosophy and effective altruism. Recently much more politics, though I’m trying to kick the habit.”
“Content ranges in lucidity from data-driven thinkpiece to schizophrenic bathroom stall door–scrawl,” he wrote.
Last week, Shtein initially fled the scene of the alleged groping, but surrendered to cops just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
He was charged with sexual abuse, aggravated sexual abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.
At his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal court, prosecutors said the alleged crime was witnessed by the four kids who were with the victim.
Attorney Chaudhry — who was named one of 25 “Power Lawyers” by The Hollywood Reporter— said in court that the charges “as written up invite skepticism.”
She also called for video from the train to be released, adding it would “clear up this matter quickly.”
“His reputation has been destroyed before a single piece of evidence has been made public, he has been labelled a creep and convicted in the court of public opinion,” Chaudhry said in a later statement to The Post.
“The allegation is nonsense. On the woman’s own version of events, she would have had to have been wearing a swimsuit for the alleged conduct to have been physically possible. The subway car was packed. If you were on that train, and witnessed this woman’s behavior, please contact my firm.”
Yale didn’t return calls from The Post Thursday.
A Yale student on Thursday also told The Post, they want Shtein booted from the school if the allegations are true.
“Having followed Shtein’s online work, I find it deeply troubling to see these allegations now arise in connection with someone whose public writing already displayed such a troubling lack of empathy toward issues of gender, harm, and accountability,” the unidentified student, who knows Shtein, told The Post.
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