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On Monday, October 16, a 42-year-old Lower Manhattan resident (whose name is being withheld) was walking on the Battery Park City esplanade near Rector Place when he was surrounded at approximately 9:30pm by three young males on bicycles, who repeatedly slapped and punched him.
According to a Police Department spokesman, “the victim was not hospitalized as a result of this incident but did sustain bruising and swelling to the right side of his face and pain to the back of his head. There are no arrests at this time and the investigation is ongoing.”
This narrative is contradicted by an account offered by Police Officer Nicolaos Iordanou, who handles Community Affairs at the NYPD’s First Precinct. At the October 18 meeting of the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1, he said, “an arrest was made. Fortunately, there was a police officer who happened to be nearby and observed the incident. We placed the handcuffs on one individual, and we took him into custody.”
“We didn’t release him. We brought him down to the courthouse,” Officer Iordanou continued, in a reference to the NYPD’s Central Booking facility for Manhattan, at 100 Centre Street (in the same building as the Criminal Court). “He was in for 24 hours or so. He was given a court date of November 29 and released by a judge. I think a lot of the people were upset about the charge. It is a misdemeanor assault, not a felony assault. We don’t set that policy. That’s just the way the penal law is written.”
“I know there was some talk about him residing in that homeless, migrant shelter,” Officer Iordanou said, in an apparent reference to the Holiday Inn at 99 Washington Street (at the corner of Rector Street), where the City is temporarily housing more than 1,000 immigrant refugees. “But that’s not the case. He’s an uptown resident and judging by his history, it sounds like he’s just a random crazy person.”
Peter Tse, the Community Liaison for Lower Manhattan at the New York County District Attorney’s office, elaborated. “Since misdemeanor assault cases are not bail-eligible, there’s no discretion on our part, or the police department’s part, to do anything about holding him.” In a further layer of ambiguity, Mr. Tse said, “one thing I can confirm here is that he is still in the system, he is not back out.”
Spokespersons for the First Precinct, Police Headquarters, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for clarification about the inconsistencies in their narratives about the October 16 assault.
Matthew Fenton
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