The New York City straphanger who was caught on video putting a disturbed homeless man in a deadly chokehold this week could be prosecuted — although for what charges would likely depend on how threatened subway riders felt beforehand, legal experts said Wednesday.
Criminal defense attorneys and former prosecutors suggested the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office — should it choose to bring charges against the 24-year-old Marine over Jordan Neely’s death Monday — could possibly make the argument for raps of manslaughter of criminally negligent homicide.
But several factors would need to be taken into account before prosecutors can even determine there was criminal liability.
“It really depends, I suppose, on the danger that he posed to the other passengers,” Jeffrey Lichtman, the defense attorney who’s represented Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and John Gotti Jr., said of Neely, 30, who went on a boisterous rant just before he was choked out and killed on an F train.
“I think what the DA is going to do is talk to the people who were there, and they’re going to find out exactly what kind of legitimate threat the guy posed,” Lichtman told The Post. “Some guy yelling at you on the subway — you can’t choke him out and kill him.
“The potential defendant may be saying, ‘Look, I didn’t try to kill him. I was just trying to hold him in place so he would stop harassing people,'” Lichtman continued.
The DA’s office has said it’s considering charges against the passenger who locked Neely into a chokehold after the homeless man exploded into a wild tirade on the lower Manhattan subway car.
Todd Spodek, a criminal defense attorney who has represented several high-profile clients, said District Attorney Alvin Bragg would likely reach for an involuntary manslaughter charge if he sought to bring the case to court.
“There’s no question that the [passenger] did not intend to commit murder here,” Spodek told The Post. “So the question is, did his actions lead to the death of this strap hanger? And was he negligent to such a degree that he could be culpable for criminally negligent homicide?”
If he was found guilty, he could face several years in state prison, Spodek said.
Jason Goldman, a Big Apple criminal defense attorney, said prosecutors would have to weigh Neely’s actions before he was restrained, how long he was in a chokehold and any health conditions that may have contributed to his death — which was ruled a homicide by the city medical examiner later Wednesday.
“Charging intentional homicide would set the DA’s office up for an uphill battle,” Goldman said. “I think Bragg looks towards manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.”
Additional reporting by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon