Sex harassment victim fights back with cell phone pic

[September 20, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Police arrested a man accused of taking a cell phone picture under a subway rider's skirt after the victim said she used her own phone to snap back. The 28-year-old woman said she was victimized last month while climbing stairs to an elevated station in upper Manhattan. A passer-by confirmed her suspicion that he had taken a photo up her skirt, she said.

She followed the suspect onto a train, took his picture, then e-mailed it to police and filed a report. "I told him 'smile' because I am going to the police," the woman told The New York Times.

Aaron Olivieri was arrested Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of attempted unlawful surveillance, attempted sexual abuse and harassment. He was nabbed in a Manhattan subway station by an officer who said he matched the person in the photo the woman had taken, authorities said.

His lawyer, Rigodis Appling, did not immediately return a call for comment on Friday.

[Associated Press]

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