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The office of controversial Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg downgraded charges against a career criminal who snatched cash from a woman in the subway station, according to sources and court records
Claude Myers, 54, who has 46 prior arrests and is on parole, allegedly unzipped the unsuspecting victim's backpack and withdrew $60 on Thursday at about 5 p.m. inside the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station, according to a law-enforcement source and court papers.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally at A. Philip Randolph Square in Harlem on November 01, 2021 in New York City before taking office. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) ((Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images))
Myers didn't realize that a plainclothes transit cop was watching nearby. He allegedly saw Myers count the three twenty dollar bills then slip them into his wallet.
Police arrested him on charges of grand larceny in the 4th degree for removing the property from a person, criminal possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance after recovering a clear container with synthetic cannabinoid from his pocket.
FORMER PROSECUTORS CALL MANHATTAN DA'S SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES ‘DEFINITION OF INSANITY’
But when prosecutors wrote up the complaint against Myers, the top charge was downgraded from felony grand larceny to petit larceny, court records show. Judge Michael Gaffey ordered Myers released without bail.
The downgraded charges were in line with Bragg's soft-on-crime agenda, which he outlined in a controversial memo when he took office in January.
Alvin Bragg, a former top deputy to New York's attorney general, stands with his wife, Jamila Bragg, at an election night gathering as he speaks to supporters in New York June 22, 2021. ((AP Photo/Craig Ruttle))
He has since walked back some of the most criticized parts of his policy – including reducing commercial robberies to petit larcenies if the brandishing of a weapon "does not create a genuine risk of harm."
Former Manhattan prosecutor turned defense lawyer Mark Bederow called the downgraded charges against Myers unheard of in prior administrations.
"Under previous district attorneys, a man observed by police committing a pickpocket with an atrocious criminal history would have been charged with grand larceny and would have been held on bail," Bederow told Fox News Digital. "Now he's charged with petit larceny, which is not even bail eligible."
Bederow added that with Myers' criminal history, if he had been convicted of grand larceny, "it would have been virtually certain he would have been given a stiff jail sentence."
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The DA's office declined to comment. Myers lawyer didn't immediately return a request for comment.
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