Ex-hotel still houses sex offenders near NYC playground after bombshell report and nearby shelter is now following suit
A converted hotel next to a Chinatown playground is still housing violent sex offenders a full 10 months after The Post blew the whistle — and now a second Manhattan shelter is doing the same thing.At least two registered sex offenders exposed in a July 5 report — including a level 3 offender, the highest risk — are still calling the former Hotel MB building at 61 Chrystie St.home near the Hester Street Playground, while a third only left because he was sent back to prison time and is now on parole.Now another Big Apple neighborhood is facing the same fears for local parents, with a half dozen sex offenders holed up at a shelter at 197 Bowery, around the corner from the Rivington Street Playground.“Our society has become deaf to things that matters,” a 40-year-old mom who lives near the playground with her disabled 4-year-old daughter.
“It’s like putting fresh, raw, bleeding meat in front of a shark.“When I see a child alone in the park when I’m leaving, I tell them to leave because I’d cry if I see it in the news that something happened and I did nothing,” said the woman, who identified herself as EJ.The Post found at least five level 2 offenders registered at the Bowery building, including Marco Cepeda, who was convicted of sodomizing an 11-year-old boy, and Devereaux Davis, who was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.The others include Edwin Irizarry, who has a first-degree rape on his rap sheet, William Porter, who was convicted of first-degree attempted rape, and Orestis Argyris, who was found guilty of transferring obscene materials to a minor, according to records.Another former tenant, level 3 offender Larry Powlis, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, was still living that the shelter on April 7 but has since moved out.A spokesperson for Breaking Ground, the group that operates the Bowery shelter, referred questions to the city Department of Homeless Services or the NYPD Spec...