University police arrested a New Haven man Monday evening after he allegedly groped a Yale student, the first arrest made in a series of similar assaults this year.
Police believe Miguel Minor-Sagon reached under a female student’s skirt and grabbed her buttocks while passing her on a bike Monday, Yale Police Lt. Michael Patten said. Minor-Sagon vaguely matches the description of suspects from other sexual assaults this year, though police have not connected him to the crimes, Patten said.
The incident occurred in front of 15 High St., Patten said. Police were alerted, and chased the suspect from the corner of Chapel and High streets to 149 York St., where he was apprehended behind the Yale Center for British Art.
Minor-Sagon was arraigned Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court on charges of breach of the peace in the second degree and sexual assault in the fourth degree. Court records indicate he was still in custody as of Tuesday afternoon.
The incident is the fifth groping reported to campus police this semester, four of which were done by men on bicycles. Patten said he was not sure what was responsible for the rise in gropings this year.
“It could be one guy. Maybe we got him and maybe that’ll end it,” Patten said.
New Haven police do not keep specific statistics on groping incidents, and it is unclear if the increase is city-wide, New Haven police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester said in an e-mail.
Three gropings occurred in late August, prompting an e-mail from University Police Chief James Perrotti to all students. No further incidents were reported to police until a student was grabbed Sept. 22, Patten said.
The victim in that case described the perpetrator as a white or light-skinned Hispanic male in his late teens. He was wearing a green basketball shirt and had short, dark hair, Patten said. The description is similar to those given by previous victims.
Minor-Sagon is a young light-skinned Hispanic male, Patten said.
Patten said police are currently investigating whether Minor-Sagon may have committed some, or all of the other gropings. But he said the victims’ descriptions, often made with only a quick glance at the perpetrators, are not enough to draw any conclusions.
He is scheduled to appear again in court Oct. 12.