http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/11/12/2008-11-12_new_yorkpresbyterian_hospital_columbia_v.html

New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia visitor is accused of molesting elderly patient
BY ERICA PEARSON, KERRY BURKE and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Thursday, November 13th 2008, 12:18 AM

Yakov Kramer

A 27-year-old man was busted Wednesday night on charges of sneaking into a Manhattan hospital room and molesting a 72-year-old patient, police sources said.

A nurse came into the victim's room to find Yakov Kramer allegedly standing over the elderly man's bed at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia yesterday, sources said.

Kramer had allegedly pulled up the victim's hospital gown and was fondling him , sources said.

The elderly victim, though frail, was able to describe the alleged assault, sources said. The horrified nurse called hospital security, who grabbed Kramer about 12:15 p.m., sources said.

"The whole story is wrong and stupid," said a woman who answered the phone at the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home of Kramer's father, Jeremias Kramer.

"He is a student, a studious person," the woman said. "He was in the hospital with his wife. She had an appointment. Something is very wrong if someone could be arrested at a hospital. This is a stupid, stupid mistake."

Kramer, a Hasidic Jew from Spring Valley, Rockland County, was arrested about 9 p.m. and taken out of the hospital in handcuffs for processing at the 33rd Precinct stationhouse in Washington Heights.

Charges were pending Wednesday night.

Though the alleged assault was discovered about noon, hospital staff waited more than three hours to notify police, hospital security sources said.

"The allegations are disgusting, preying on an elderly person, a sick patient who couldn't fight back," a police source said.

The cloth Kramer allegedly used to clean up the evidence was seized by the NYPD for testing, sources said.

"He didn't know the victim - it looks like he just wandered into a room and took advantage," another police source said.

Kramer's father and relatives declined to comment as they waited at the stationhouse.