BK Shelter Worker Groped Homeless Women He Was Tasked To Help: DA

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A Fort Greene shelter worker who was convicted of groping three women he was supposed to help could face two years in prison, prosecutors announced.

Clyde Johnson, 56, was convicted Thursday on sexual abuse charges after he groped three women who he was assigned to help at the Auburn Family Shelter in 2017, prosecutors said. Johnson, who is from Queens, was working as a housing specialist with the city's Department of Homeless Services at the time.

“The victims in this case are among society’s most vulnerable people and it is incumbent upon us that when we welcome them into a New York City shelter they are offered a safe haven and treated with dignity and respect," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "Sadly, that did not happen in this case. Today’s verdict is a measure of justice for these women and holds the defendant accountable for his egregious and abusive conduct.”

Johnson was charged with three counts of forcible touching and one count of third-degree sexual abuse and will be sentenced in December, prosecutors said. He faces up to two years in prison.

The first assault happened in April 2017, when Johnson groped a woman staying at the shelter while meeting with her to discuss housing.

Just a few months later, Johnson groped another woman staying at the shelter when they were both in a nearby deli. He came up behind the woman while she was buying something, rubbed against her butt, and said "This is a stickup," prosecutors said.

Johnson assaulted the same woman a second time, by rubbing up against her, when they were riding the B54 bus, prosecutors said.

Then, a month later, he groped a third woman who had come into his office for help with her housing situation, prosecutors said.

"This defendant preyed upon already vulnerable shelter residents, depriving them of the security and confidence they should expect in a City-operated shelter and when coming to a public servant for assistance," Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett said. "This investigation underscores how sexual abuse and harassment infringe on a person’s most basic rights and feeling of safety."

The news of Johnson's conviction comes within weeks of another incident at the Auburn Family Shelter, when half a dozen residents became ill after they were served rotten chicken salad.

The chicken salad had a fake expiration sticker covering the label that showed it expired five weeks before. It led at least six people to vomit as shelter workers laughed at them, residents told the Daily News.

The food vendor that delivered the chicken has since been suspended from working with the city until they take "corrective action."