A former bodega clerk who was infamously charged with murder after fatally stabbing an attacker in his store last year in what he claimed was self-defense is suing lefty Manhattan District Attorney Alvin and the New York City Police Department for racial discrimination.
Former clerk Jose Alba, who stabbed ex-con Austin Simon to death during a fight at the Blue Moon bodega in Harlem in July 2022, claims he was hit with second-degree murder charges and endured days under lockup on Rikers Island because of Bragg’s pursuit of “racial equity” in the Manhattan criminal justice system, according to the Manhattan Federal Court suit filed Friday.
“While in theory, Bragg’s ‘racial equity’ policies are a well-intentioned attempt by him to implement even-handed justice, the means and methods employed by Bragg have instead had an opposite effect and resulted in discrimination against certain defendants based on race,” states the suit, which also names NYPD Detective William Garcia along with unnamed arresting officers and police detectives.
On July 1, 2022, Alba, a 61-year-old Dominican immigrant, stabbed Simon, a 35-year-old black man, multiple times at the Harlem bodega, after the hardworking clerk got into an argument with his attacker’s girlfriend because she couldn’t pay for a bag of chips, video revealed.
The ex-con approached Alba from behind the counter and shoved him, sparking a fight that ended in Simon’s death and the clerk’s arrest, after he called the police.
Despite Alba’s claims of self-defense, Bragg charged the clerk with second-degree murder and requested bail be set at $500,000, although a judge lowered it to $250,000.
Alba, unable to afford the eye-watering bail fee, was shipped off to Rikers, where he endured “inhumane and unconstitutional conditions,” according to the suit.
Bragg’s decision to throw the book at Alba over his slaying led to a sea of public backlash, including from Mayor Eric Adams and former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, who ripped the typically soft-on-crime DA for jailing a working man who appeared to be protecting himself and his store from a robbery.
Alba spent six days in Rikers before he was freed once prosecutors lowered his bail amount to $50,000.
“My heart goes out to the employee who was in the store doing his job,” Adams said at the time.
“I am hoping that we take all of that into consideration, as this hard-working New Yorker was doing his job, and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him.”
Following the public pressure campaign, on July 19, Bragg finally dropped the charges, admitting there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the worker “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force,” his office wrote in a motion.
In addition to Bragg, the suit names Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina and other DOC staff, along with the city, as being “responsible for the unconstitutional conditions of confinement and inadequate medical care at Rikers Island.”
Alba and his lawyers announced plans to sue in February, but delayed filing the case while attempting to negotiate a pre-lawsuit settlement, which proved unsucessful, said Rich Cardinale, a lawyer for the former bodega worker.
Alba is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, which will be determined by a jury, Cardinale said. No price tag was named in the court papers.
Bragg “is treating people differently and he’s hurting people,” Cardinale told The Post.
“Meanwhile, other people are committing repeated crimes and he keeps giving them a break.”
“We can’t keep pitting ourselves against each other based on race,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA’s office declined to comment.
https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/nyc-bodega-worker-jose-alba-sues-da-alvin-bragg-nypd/
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