Witness in Daniel Penny trial lied about his involvement and proves no good deed goes unpunished

Since the Daniel Penny trial kicked off, witness after witness has described the abject terror they felt while riding the uptown F train as unhinged homeless man Jordan Neely entered the car, snarling and threatening straphangers.One teen testified that she was so frightened she thought she’d pass out.An older woman was “scared s–tless.” A 29-year-old man said he was “pretty terrified.” All testified that they’d never before experienced that type of acute panic while riding the train.But on Tuesday, one was visibly petrified to be in that courtroom, with protesters outside and multiple Neely supporters inside.Scared to be on the stand.

To be a party to a potential acquittal of Penny and what that would mean for his personal safety.And it was the fear of losing his freedom, Eric Gonzalez said, that made him initially fabricate parts of his story to investigators.Gonzalez, 39, was the man in the black cap seen in the now-familiar footage from May 1, 2023 — helping to restrain Neely’s flailing arms as Penny held him in the chokehold that killed him.The Bronx resident testified that he arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station as the train was being held and that he stumbled upon the physical struggle unfolding on the dirty subway floor.

“Everyone was frantic and saying ‘call the cops,’ so I assumed one was trying to restrain the other until the cops came,” he said.Gonzalez told the jury that he “jumped and tried to help.” But after later learning that Neely had died and Penny had been arrested, Gonzalez was so spooked to be “pinned for a murder charge” that he took all of his vacation from work and went into hiding.And when he initially spoke to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, he now admits, he fabricated parts of his story.

Two weeks ago, Gonzalez was given immunity to testify.Yes, he admitted to lying about being on the scene much earlier and that Neely hit him, prompting Penny to swing into action.All that t...