A man who was alleged to have grabbed three women by the buttocks has been arrested and charged with criminal sexual contact in Kearny and Lyndhurst, Det. Sgt. Michael Gontarczuk, of the Kearny Police Department, tells The Observer.
Here’s how Sgt. Gontarczuk says this all went down.
On July 13, 2024, at about 7:16 p.m., night shift officers responded to Maple and Grove streets on a report of a man dressed all in black following and harassing a female walking her dog. The man, later identified as Davon M. Duiguid Jr., 21, of Lyndhurst, was located nearby and detained by Officers Ruben Rivera, Travis Witt and Bismark Karikari.
The female/victim was no longer on scene, but Duiguid was checked for warrants and was found to be wanted by the Lyndhurst PD for a criminal sexual contact that occurred earlier in the same day at the Lyndhurst ShopRite, in which Duiguid allegedly grasped the victim’s buttocks.
(A no-bail warrant had been issued by order of Judge Savino for criminal sexual contact).
In Kearny, he was placed under arrest on the warrant and Lyndhurst PD was advised. While Duguid was being processed for the warrant, an 18-year-old woman contacted police to report at around 6:40 p.m., while she was walking her dog near Kearny and Midland avenues, a man matching the description of Duiguid — dressed all in black — took hold of her arm to prevent her from walking away, and then he grabbed her buttocks.
The victim struggled to break free, then began hitting him and he eventually let go of her.
Based on the description and MO, Duguid appeared to be a suspect in this incident as well. Interestingly, the description of the man included an orange and yellow object in his hand — and he was arrested with a large orange and yellow vape pen.
The victim was escorted into the tour commander’s office for a show-up identification procedure and Duiguid was positively identified by the victim with 100% certainty. Det. Bryan San Martin obtained a recorded statement from the victim and after consulting with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, additional criminal sexual contact charges were generated levied.
Duiguid was later transferred to the Hudson County Jail, South Kearny, without incident, where he remains as of 10 a.m., July 15. Earlier this month, Duiguid was released by court order after spending five days in the Atlantic County Jail.
The original incident at Maple and Grove streets remains under investigation.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.