A wished ex-con allegedly stole greater than $2,000 price of merchandise by threatening a drug retailer employee with a knife — but had his armed theft costs downgraded underneath the controversial, progressive insurance policies of Manhattan’s new district lawyer, The Put up has realized.
The transfer adopted an identical case — featured on the entrance web page of Sunday’s Put up — during which prosecutors decreased a felony theft cost to misdemeanor petit larceny as per the marching orders DA Alvin Bragg gave them final week.
“Bragg’s insurance policies are an affront to each law-abiding citizen in New York Metropolis,” fumed former Manhattan assistant district lawyer Daniel Ollen, who’s now a protection lawyer.
“Violent criminals now have carte blanche to re-offend, realizing full properly that they may by no means once more sniff the within of a jail cell.”
Ollen added: “For those who thought issues couldn’t get any worse, assume once more. God assist us.”
Within the newest case, profession felony William Rolon, 43, is accused of filling a plastic trash bag with chilly drugs and different gadgets inside a Duane Reade retailer on the Decrease East Facet round 12:20 a.m. Saturday.
When Rolon left the shop at 100 Delancey St. with out paying, a feminine supervisor confronted him and noticed he was brandishing a pocket knife, in keeping with courtroom papers.
“F–okay you, I’m taking all the pieces,” he allegedly mentioned.
Rolon and an unidentified confederate then headed west with the loot, which was price $2,209, regulation enforcement sources conversant in the matter mentioned.
Rolon returned to the shop round 5:30 p.m. the identical day and allegedly stole extra chilly drugs, some paper towels and different gadgets, in keeping with courtroom papers.
One other supervisor acknowledged Rolon from the sooner incident — which was caught on surveillance video — and referred to as the cops, resulting in his arrest, sources mentioned.
Whereas in custody on the close by seventh Precinct headquarters, a small bundle of heroin allegedly fell out of Rolon’s sock, in keeping with courtroom papers.
Cops charged Rolon with first-degree theft and felony possession of a weapon within the first incident, sources mentioned.
However when he was arraigned in Manhattan Prison Courtroom early Sunday morning, the theft cost was dropped by the Manhattan DA’s Workplace and he was as a substitute charged with two counts of petit larceny and associated low-level offenses, together with second-degree menacing, courtroom papers present.
“For those who’re a cop, you can not cost a menacing with a petit larceny. That’s a theft,” a regulation enforcement supply mentioned.
“That is Police Academy 101.”
The transfer by prosecutors was consistent with the orders outlined by Bragg in a “Day One” memo he issued on Jan. 3, his first full day in workplace.
Underneath Bragg’s directives, sure robberies of companies are to be prosecuted as petit larcenies offered that no sufferer was wounded and there’s no “real threat of bodily hurt.”
The supervisor who Rolon allegedly threatened advised cops she feared for her life and didn’t wish to return to work, sources conversant in the matter mentioned, and the felony grievance notes that Rolon’s alleged conduct “positioned her in worry of bodily damage, severe bodily damage or loss of life.”
“He simply ignored the sufferer,” Manhattan protection lawyer Michael Discioarro mentioned of Bragg.
“He’s telling the sufferer: You don’t deserve safety from the state.”
Discioarro, a former Bronx prosecutor, added: “If that is how we’re going to prosecute crime — by ignoring crime — we’re in hassle.”
The supervisor declined to remark.
The incident on the Duane Reade adopted a theft arrest Thursday at a TJ Maxx retailer in Chelsea, after which the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Affiliation claimed a prosecutor “deliberately omitted” from the felony grievance an allegation that the suspect threatened employees with a pair of scissors.
The arresting officer refused to signal the grievance till that info was added, however prosecutors nonetheless downgraded a third-degree theft cost to petit larceny, in accordance with Bragg’s orders, sources mentioned.
In his memo, Bragg initially mentioned all instances of economic robberies with a “lethal weapon” or “harmful instrument” can be downgraded, however his workplace walked again that directive the next day amid outrage from Manhattan shopkeepers.
As a substitute, business robberies involving weapons will nonetheless be prosecuted as felonies, the DA’s workplace mentioned.
On the time of Rolon’s arrest Saturday, he was wished in Brooklyn for failing to seem in courtroom in October on costs that embody felony assault with a weapon, data present.
That case entails an incident that happened in April, data present.
He was freed on supervised launch at his Manhattan arraignment on Sunday after which taken to Brooklyn Prison Courtroom, the place he was launched with out bail.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow mentioned the choice to cost Rolon “with petit larceny, in essence, assured that bail wouldn't be set and he can be again out on the road after arraignment.”
“Charging him with a misdemeanor additionally seemingly meant the courtroom in Brooklyn who noticed him after the Manhattan arrest may need been unaware that the allegations had been far more severe than a easy petit larceny, which seemingly led to his launch once more with out bail,” he mentioned.
Bederow, now a protection lawyer, additionally famous that Rolon’s file implies that he may “be labeled as a violent predicate felon, which might topic him to a considerable and obligatory jail time period if he was convicted of a violent theft on his latest Manhattan arrest.”
Bederow added, “The charging choice made by the Manhattan ADA seems to be in lockstep with the Bragg memo and precisely what many individuals feared.”
Rolon has a rap sheet that lists greater than 20 arrests that date again to 1991 and contain costs of rape, theft, assault and drug dealing, sources mentioned.
In 1997, Rolon was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in jail for theft in upstate Fulton County, and he was later slapped with a five-year sentence in 2009 for tried theft in Brooklyn, data present.
He was launched from supervision within the latter case in 2019, data present.
A veteran cop mentioned that whereas he agreed with Bragg that homeless, mentally sick shoplifters ought to be diverted to remedy, “the violent guys who've weapons — they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the regulation.”
“He’s saying all of them ought to get a break and I can’t concur with that,” the cop mentioned.
Rolon is being represented by the Authorized Assist Society, which mentioned in an announcement that Rolon “is a main instance of an individual in want of remedy and sources, not incarceration.”
“Jail and jail solely create a vicious cycle of incarceration and solely serve to exacerbate root trigger points and to detract from public security,” the assertion mentioned.
Bragg’s workplace didn’t return repeated requests for remark and solely despatched a reporter Rolon’s felony grievance — a public file underneath state regulation — after a number of inquiries.
However throughout a Monday morning radio interview on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Present,” Bragg drew a distinction between robberies dedicated by somebody who “goes into the shop” with a gun and “waves it round” and those who contain what the Penal Regulation calls a “harmful instrument.”
“They're, you already know, instances that, you already know, somebody makes an attempt and throws one thing at you want a pork chop,” he mentioned.
“I don’t wish to be frivolous about it, however that actually could be a harmful weapon underneath the regulation.”
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