Just over a week ago, police arrested and charged a suspect who they believe is the "well-dressed groper" accused of attacking at up to four women in Manhattan this year. Friends and family couldn't believe that 26-year-old Park Slope resident Karl Vanderwoude could be the perp—and today, Vanderwoude told the Post in an interview this was all a big mix-up: “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t even in the vicinity of these incidents,” he said. “It’s a case of mistaken identity.”
Vanderwoude has been charged with forcible touching, unlawful surveillance and sexual abuse in two of the gropings. He said he had been home sick from his job as an operations coordinator Madison Avenue private equity firm MVision when police tracked him down and brought him in for questioning. “I didn’t know what was going on,” Vanderwoude said. “I’m from Michigan initially. I’ve been here [in New York] three years.”
After grilling him about the photos and surveillance video, he was put into three lineups: “When [the lineups] began, I was relieved—there’s no way they’re going to say it’s me,” he remembered. “I didn’t look like anyone in there. They all had pretty much dark hair, and some of the guys were clearly 50 pounds heavier than me. They were very different looking.” But at least one of the women identified him as the groper.
He said that his perp walk later "felt like a movie:" "I absolutely never thought I’d be handcuffed in my life. When I saw the photographers and video cameras, I thought, ‘What is going on? What happened?’" After that, he says he realized “My integrity was on the line...My name had been tarnished.” In addition to vehemently denying the charges, Vanderwoude says that e-mail records, video footage and co-worker accounts from MVision provide him with a rock-solid alibi. “We have full confidence that they’ll dismiss the case after reviewing the evidence,” said his attorney John Tumelty.
But the mother of one victim also told the Post her daughter is certain he was her attacker. “She said, ‘Mom, I knew it the second I walked in there,’ ” the mother said. “He didn’t just grab her butt, he...grabbed her crotch. There was lots of bruising.” Vanderoude says the sooner police are done with him, the better for the victims: “I hope the police find the person they’re looking for.”
