The case against Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny should never have been filed, yet based upon witness testimony, it should certainly be dismissed, experts at Law Officer believe.
Penny faces charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in New York City as a result of the death of Jordan Neely, 30, on a subway car in Manhattan, May 1, 2023.
A defense motion brief has shed light on the animus political prosecution. Details in the brief should lead to dismissal, but that is highly unlikely given leftist District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s propensity for consistently doing the wrong thing as it relates to blind justice.
Neely, had a documented history of mental illness and violent crime. During the May encounter, subway riders were at the mercy of a man openly menacing women and children. Grand jury testimony make this fact clear, riders were terrified on the F train that day.
In one account, a woman described cowering with her baby behind her stroller as Neely was making “half-lunge” movements toward riders, according to the brief, Fox News reported.
In another account, a high school girl said she heard Neely say “someone is going to die today.” As a result, she began to pray the subway doors would open so she could escape.
Yet another rider who’d taken the subway for decades, and was now retired, described how frightened she was:
“I have been riding the subway for many years,” she said, according to the brief. “I have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that.”
As a result of the fear felt by many, Penny and others took action.
“I remember, like, looking to my right, seeing the mom cover her kid, and then looking left, and in like the snap of a finger I saw Mr. Penny come up behind, put his hand on Mr. Neely, and then they were both down on the ground,” a grand jury witness testified, according to the brief.
It’s unclear if it’s the same witness, but a firsthand observer who described herself as a woman of color who has lived in New York City more than 50 years said, “He’s a hero,” after the incident, Law Officer reported in May.
“It was self-defense, and I believe in my heart that he saved a lot of people that day that could have gotten hurt,” she emphasized, while criticizing DA Bragg for filing charges.
“I’m sitting on a train reading my book, and, all of a sudden, I hear someone spewing this rhetoric. He said, ‘I don’t care if I have to kill an F, I will. I’ll go to jail, I’ll take a bullet,’” recalled the woman, who is in her 60s.
The passengers were terrified and crowded toward the exit doors.
“I’m looking at where we are in the tube, in the sardine can, and I’m like, ‘OK, we’re in between stations. There’s nowhere we can go,’” she said. “The people on that train, we were scared. We were scared for our lives.”
Penny stepped in when Neely started using the word “kill” and “bullet.”
“Why in the world would you take a bullet? Why? You don’t take a bullet because you’ve snatched something from somebody’s hand. You take a bullet for violence,” she added.
“Mr. Penny cared for people. That’s what he did. That is his crime,” she concluded.
The Western Journal reported, “Even in the dry legal papers, the relief in those words is almost palpable — a deliverance from evil appearing on the scene as Penny placed Neely in a chokehold and, with the assistance of two other men, ended the threat to the rest of the passengers.”
Before progressive faux prosecutors rose to power in prosecutorial positions, Penny would be applauded. No one has accused him of deliberately killing Neely. He wasn’t even arrested immediately after being questioned by officers.
But this tragedy occurred in Manhattan, where DA Bragg reigns supreme and people have become afraid to defend themselves, while criminals revel in a “social justice” system that has Lady Justice taking on water in upper New York Bay.
Penny spoke publicly about what took place in video clips released by his attorneys in June, Law Officer reported.
He said he was listening to music though his headphones when Neely boarded the train at Second Ave. He removed his headphones when he saw Neely throw his jacket down at passengers.
“This was a scary situation,” Penny explained in one of four video clips. “The three main threats he repeated over and over were ‘I’m going to kill you. I’m prepared to go to jail for life and I’m willing to die.’”
“Some people say I was holding on to Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true,” Penny said. “The reason why there’s no video at the start of the altercation is because people were too afraid getting away from him.”
Penny said the interaction between him and Neely lasted less than five minutes.
“I was praying that the police would come and take this situation over. I couldn’t sit still and let him carry out these threats,” Penny acknowledged.
“I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers. I saw a man threatening passengers – a lot of whom were people of color. A man who helped restrain Mr. Neely was a person of color,” Penny explained.
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- Footage reveals Marine veteran Daniel Penny and others placing Jordan Neely in ‘recovery position,’ passengers complimenting him
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- Witness to Jordan Neely death calls Daniel Penny a ‘hero’
