The New York City district attorney who indicted former President Donald Trump in relation to hush-money payments to an adult film actress is being sued by a former bodega clerk charged with murder after fatally stabbing an attacker in his store last year.
Jose Alba, who stabbed to death ex-con Austin Simon during a fight at a Harlem bodega in July 2022, claimed self-defense in the incident.
Simon had approached Alba from behind the counter and shoved him, sparking a fight that ended in the ex-con's death and the clerk's arrest, after he called the police.
The bodega clerk says he was charged with second-degree murder and was locked up for days on Rikers Island because of DA Alvin Bragg's pursuit of "racial equity" in the Manhattan criminal justice system, according to the suit filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, the New York Post reported.
Alba is suing Bragg and the New York Police Department for racial discrimination.
"While in theory, Bragg's 'racial equity' policies are a well-intentioned attempt by him to implement even-handed justice, the means and methods employed by Bragg have instead had an opposite effect and resulted in discrimination against certain defendants based on race," the suit said.
Bragg initially charged Alba with second-degree murder and requested bail be set at $500,000, although a judge lowered it to $250,000.
Unable to afford bail, Alba was sent to Rikers, where he endured "inhumane and unconstitutional conditions" for six days before being freed after prosecutors lowered his bail amount to $50,000, the Post reported.
Major backlash over how Bragg treated Alba included Mayor Eric Adams and former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton blasting the progressive DA for jailing someone who appeared to be protecting himself and his store from robbery.
"My heart goes out to the employee who was in the store doing his job," Adams said at the time, the Post reported.
"I am hoping that we take all of that into consideration, as this hardworking New Yorker was doing his job, and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him."
Alba is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, which will be determined by a jury, attorney Richard Cardinale said, the Post reported.
In April, Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom and pleaded not guilty after Bragg charged him with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges were related to hush-money payments including over an alleged tryst with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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