Fiery testimony and protests erupt on day three of Daniel Penny trial: Fk your rules!
As if there wasn’t enough drama in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter case, a wild scene unfolded in the hallway outside the courtroom on Thursday.As the court began to take a morning break and folks were waiting to be ushered out, a supporter of Jordan Neely – the man who died after Penny restrained him in a chokehold on an F train – started speaking loudly in the gallery, prompting a court officer to tell him to save his conversation for the hallways outside the courtroom.Instead of politely heeding the officer’s direction, the supporter escalated the situation.Once in the Manhattan Supreme Court hallways, the man started shouting at the officer, “f–k your rules.”The defiant Neely acolyte then boldly continued to rant and scream at the officer of the court, who kept his cool and composure as a scrum formed around them.The verbal altercation continued for a few minutes before he finally left.The unhinged outburst was part of a pattern of disruptive behavior on day three of the manslaughter trial.Earlier, a woman in the gallery broke down sobbing during bystander witness Moriela Sanchez’s testimony and had to be escorted out.But her wailing could be heard from the courtroom.Another audibly cried when a photo of Neely was shown to jurors.It prompted Judge Maxwell Wiley to gently remind the audience they are not to “visibly or audibly react.
The jury in this case is entitled to that.”But it’s become clear this entire trial – where Penny, 26, faces up to 15 years behind bars for second-degree manslaughter over the death of the unhinged homeless man — is a circus of activism.Justice is merely an afterthought.After all, Penny was charged eleven days after the incident – as prosecution-averse Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg folded to the outcry from politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and other advocates, who demanded Penny’s scalp in this racially charged case.How fitting that the prosecution also called Johnny Grima, a former homeless man and...