Bodega clerk Jose Alba to sue NYC over dropped murder case
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • last year • 4 commentsBy: Georgett Roberts (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Georgett Roberts and
Priscilla DeGregory
The bodega worker who was infamously charged with murder after stabbing an assailant inside the store will sue the city for wrongfully prosecuting him and for the time he was jailed in Rikers Island before his case was finally dropped, The Post has learned.
Jose Alba, 61, plans to file suit next month, his attorney, Imran Ansari, said Wednesday.
Alba in September filed notices of claim against the city and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for $10 million, alleging they wrongfully brought a case against him for fatally stabbing ex-con Austin Simon, 35, in self-defense on July 1, 2022.
The notices — the legal precursors to lawsuits against certain New York agencies — claim the NYPD botched the investigation and withheld critical evidence from the DA's office that would have cleared Alba's name.
Alba — who was stabbed by Simon's girlfriend in the incident — also filed a notice of claim against the city Health and Hospitals Corporation, claiming that during his time in jail at Rikers, he wasn't given proper medical treatment for his stab wounds, one of which became infected.
The hardworking clerk spent six nights at the troubled lockup before prosecutors in District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office agreed to lower his $250,000 bail. The second-degree murder charges were dropped by the DA on July 19 amid growing pressure and outrage from the public over his innocence.
Alba claims that from start to finish, his case was mishandled, beginning when cops arrived in Hamilton Heights and failed to take witness statements, including from himself, the filing alleges.
Instead, the police "relied solely on the incredible word" of Simon's girlfriend, Tina Lee, who stabbed Alba in the melee, the claim papers state. Lee had beckoned Simon inside the Blue Moon Convenience store because she was angry that her EBT debit card wouldn't go through for a bag of chips for her 10-year-old daughter.
Cops also neglected to look at video of the incident "which was available, and which clearly showed there was no criminal liability on the part of Alba," the filling alleges.
And instead of taking Alba straight to the hospital to get treated for his stab wound "despite his requests," officers brought him to the 30th Precinct to interrogate him, the claim papers state.
The police then "failed to present all relevant and exculpatory information to the NY County District Attorney's Office and withheld exculpatory information," the claim states.
The DA's Office, based on the information from cops, brought "the highest charge possible" against Alba and asked for extremely high bail "so that Alba would be punished regardless of the facts of the case," the filing states. Prosecutors also "decided not to arrest Tina Lee who had no reasonable basis to stab Alba," the claim says.
Bragg, in a public statement at the time of the arrest, admitted that his office was still reviewing evidence and the investigation was ongoing. But "This review … should have been done by the NYPD and DA investigators before Alba was arrested and charged," the filing states.
At Rikers, Alba was kept "under inhumane and unconstitutional conditions," the claim states. He was kept in the intake area without COVID-19 protections and only hours after his arrival was he finally taken to the medical facility, where staff said he'd need to have his wound cleaned twice daily and pain and fever medications administered to help prevent infection, the papers claim.
Yet correction officers and jail staff didn't answer his "numerous requests" for treatment and "one of the wounds became infected," the claim states.
In the DA's court papers finally seeking to drop the case against him, "it was apparent that all of the evidence the DA reviewed was available at the time Alba was arrested and before Alba was charged," the filing alleges.
"The motion states that Simon was the aggressor but the explanation for not arresting Lee for stabbing Alba made no sense, as Lee had stabbed Alba as he was lawfully defending himself," the claim papers say.
Alba plans to sue for claims including false arrest, malicious prosecution, withholding exculpatory information and unconstitutional conditions of confinement.
"Jose Alba is a hardworking New Yorker who was confronted with a choice, defend himself from a violent attack, or face possible dire consequences," Alba's lawyers, Ansari and Richard Cardinale, said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, law enforcement didn't see it that way, and put an innocent man through the system, forced him to endure harsh conditions on Rikers Island, and failed to provide him adequate medical treatment, before dismissing his charges in the face of mounting pressure and public outrage," the statement continued.
The NYPD said it "will decline to comment on pending litigation." The DA's Office declined to comment.
The city Law Department and the city Health and Hospitals Corporation didn't return requests for comment Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Elizabeth Rosner
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The lawsuit has been filed.
I wonder how much the DA's rash, insane actions will cost the city?
I wonder if NYers will continue to elect dweebs like this DA.
And no one even bothered to look at the tape or to arrest the girlfriend?????
You're too kind. Bragg is a thug who repeatedly abuses his power.
That seems to fit the general description of most Soros-backed DAs.
Not really interested in law and order, but more focused on social aspects.
Personally, I wish Bragg had to cough up at least the $500k he asked for as bail for this poor man.
Cops were extremely negligent, as was the DA.
Probably nothing happened to any of them, either.
Still no charges filed for the woman who stabbed Alba.
Gee, I wonder why??