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JUDGE DENIES MOTION TO DISMISS CASE IN NYC SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD DEATH

Mahvish Khan, Ava Pittman, and Cassie Buchman
39 mins ago

FILE - Daniel Penny, center, is walked by New York Police Department detectives
out of the 5th Precinct, May 12, 2023, in New York. Penny, the man charged with
manslaughter for putting an agitated New York City subway rider in a fatal
chokehold, has been indicted by a grand jury, an expected procedural step that
will allow the criminal case to continue. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

NEW YORK — A trial for Daniel Penny, indicted in the chokehold death of Jordan
Neely on a New York City subway last year, will proceed after a judge denied his
request Wednesday to dismiss the case against him.

Now, Penny’s next court appearance is set for March 20, with the trial
officially starting in fall.



Penny, a Marine veteran, pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to second-degree
manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

On May 1, the New York Police Department reported, Neely boarded a train in
Manhattan and began acting erratically. A video of the encounter shows Penny
putting Neely in a chokehold and holding him down. 

When officers arrived, they reported Neely was unconscious. He was taken to a
nearby hospital and pronounced dead. A medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a
homicide due to “compression of neck.”


Previous: Daniel Penny pleads not guilty to revised charges in chokehold death
of Jordan Neely on NYC subway

A witness who captured video footage of the chokehold incident on the train said
that Neely had been saying “I don’t have food, I don’t have to drink, I’m fed up
… I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison … I’m ready to die,”
according to NewsNation affiliate WPIX.

USA TODAY reports that Neely, a street performer known for his Michael Jackson
impersonation, had been experiencing homelessness off and on and been in poor
mental health. There were times in the months and weeks leading up to his death
when he got treatment at a facility. 

A lawyer for Neely’s family told USA TODAY that his mental health issues stemmed
from when his mother was strangled in the apartment where they both lived. Neely
had only been 14. “That’s the kind of trauma that can cause anyone to
unravel,” Lennon Edwards said in an interview with the publication last year.
“This is a family that’s extremely burdened.”

Attorney Donte Mills previously said Penny had “no authority” to place someone
in a chokehold on “Dan Abrams Live.”



“He (Penny) knew or should have known that choking him (Neely) for 15 minutes
would kill him. I can’t tell you what was in his mind when he approached him. I
can’t do that. I wouldn’t try to do it. I’m not going to tell you why,” Mills
said.

Mills said Penny was not attacked, or hit by Neely. 

Attorneys for Penny, meanwhile, said their client “never intended to harm” the
other man.

In a statement to the Law & Crime Network, Penny’s attorneys claimed their
client was acting to protect others until help arrived. 



On Wednesday, Mills said the judge’s ruling is a “win.”

Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, who are representing Penny, said they disagree
with the court’s decision not to dismiss the indictment, but “understand that
the legal threshold to continue even an ill-conceived prosecution is very low.”

“We are confident that a jury, aware of Danny’s actions in putting aside his own
safety to protect the lives of his fellow riders, will deliver a just verdict,”
Raiser and Kenniff said in a statement.

Categories: National, News



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