The male billed with shoving a woman onto the subway tracks in Situations Sq. was acting in self protection, his attorney claimed at his very first court docket look on Saturday.
Carlos Ortiz, 32, is accused of snatching a woman’s belongings at the 42nd Avenue subway station, then pushing her onto the tracks of the northbound R prepare, according to police.
But Ortiz’s lawyer, Francis White of Lawful Aid, argued that witnesses who spoke to law enforcement and the media unfairly assumed his client to be a “mugger,” or “snatcher.”
“It appears to be the people have a extremely weak circumstance,” White stated.
“He’s clearly – even by their principle to some degree – a sufferer, someone who was attacked by girl who falls into the subway.”
On Friday about 1:45 p.m. Ortiz allegedly grabbed a woman’s belongings at the 42nd Street subway station then pushed her onto the keep track of for the northbound R practice, according to law enforcement. Bystanders immediately jumped into action, encouraging her off the tracks back again onto the platform and even nabbing Ortiz as he tried using to flee, keeping him until law enforcement arrived on scene, cops mentioned.
The 36-calendar year-aged female was transported to Bellevue Medical center with head accidents. Ortiz was arrested and billed with assault on Friday immediately after a witness identified him in a police lineup, officers said.
Ortiz appeared matted in court on Saturday, wearing a soiled gray sweatshirt.
“We have a condition in this article where anyone fell into a subway as aspect of an altercation so the supposed excellent Samaritans assumed that the pusher was a mugger and a perpetrator, and manufactured statements to the law enforcement, or to the press, or anyone to that outcome,” White reported.
“Assuming that what seemed to happen was my shopper was accosted by an individual and he was guarding himself,” White added.
Video evidence of the assault appears to clearly show the target hitting Ortiz moments in advance of he pushed her on the tracks, Assistant District Lawyer Jacqueline Sudley exposed.
“This is a critical scenario in which the defendant stands accused of pushing a woman on to the subway tracks following an altercation, producing the female to be hospitalized with a major head personal injury,” Studley reported on Saturday.
“There is a movie of the complainant assaulting or attempting to assault the defendant in the moments preceding the defendant pushing the complainant on to the subway tracks,” she said. “There is also an eyewitness that mentioned the complainant was putting the defendant prior to the thrust.”
White questioned that Ortiz be freed on supervised launch, but that ask for was denied by Choose Robert Rosenthal, who set his bail at $5,000 money and $30,000 bond. The prosecution had requested bail be established at $20,000 money.
“This is a incredibly solid chance that there will be a awful miscarriage of justice if bail is established,” White explained. “My client is described in newspapers as a homeless particular person. Certainly he can not make bail.”
Ortiz has one prior misdemeanor charge in New York, in accordance to Studley, with two other misdemeanor convictions in Connecticut, for which he served 1 year in jail following furnishing legislation enforcement with two individual names. He also had many warrants in 2014 for fees this kind of as intense vending and trespassing. Those people costs ended up all dismissed, apart from one where he produced $1 bail.
His next court overall look will be on Thursday, Nov. 18.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responded to the alleged assault on Friday, vowing to make the city’s community transportation procedure safer.
“I am horrified that a female was pushed onto the tracks at the Occasions Square subway station nowadays, and I’m hoping for her total restoration,” she explained in a tweet Friday. “I’m doing the job with @MTA and our City associates to make our transit procedure safer. No one should really journey the educate or wander the streets in concern.”