‘Self-defense’ shover walks free
A MAN charged with sexually abusing two teens in Brooklyn will get 10 years of probation after he completes a mental health program, court records show.
Amrom Mendlovitz, 23, was given the plea deal, without any jail time, after the underage female victims were reluctant to testify against him in court, a source familiar with the case said.
Mendlovitz, who lives in Spring Valley in Rockland County, was arrested in 2015 and charged with grabbing a 13-yearold girl’s privates on two separate occasions in 2013 and 2015. He also exposed himself to the girl, court records show.
The girl’s older sister, also underage, came forward with similar allegations, prosecutors said.
Mendlovitz must complete a mental health program that typically takes two to three years. If he doesn’t finish the program, he will face prison time. A HOMELESS street vendor was found not guilty Monday of pushing a 59-year-old Queens man to his death in front of a subway train in 2012, as a jury accepted his argument he acted in self-defense.
A lawyer patted Naeem Davis’ back after the jury acquitted the 35-year-old of all charges for killing Ki-Suck Han at the W. 49th St. and Seventh Ave. station.
Davis bowed his head as the jury forewoman read not guilty to each charge: murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Davis had faced life behind bars on the top count stemming from the Dec. 3, 2012, shove into the path of an oncoming Q train.
Justice Mark Dwyer set Davis free after sending home the jury, which had deliberated for 31/2 days in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Davis walked out of court a free man after about 41/2 years in jail.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I’m thankful for my freedom, that’s it.”
He said he has plans to join his family in Paris.
“Like I said to (Han’s) wife when I saw her at the precinct, I said, ‘I’m sorry, that I feel bad that she lost her husband,” Davis said. “But it’s not something that I asked for.”
Han’s wife was not in the courtroom Monday for the verdict. Her attorney told The News the family was “obviously very disappointed with the verdict,” and has a pending lawsuit against the MTA.
Davis had claimed a seemingly drunk Han berated him after the two bumped into each other on the platform, and that Han continued to yell threats as he walked away.
Davis said he pushed Han away after he grabbed him, causing the older man to fall onto the tracks.
Jury forewoman Gretchen Pfeil, a Harlem professor, embraced Davis in the hallway upon his release.
“For me, there was a lack of evidence on most of the charges,” she said. “By the end of our deliberations, I believe that we were of one mind that he was in fact justified in his actions or at least the prosecution had not convinced us otherwise.”
Pfeil, 39, said she understood how Davis might have feared for his safety on the platform.
“If someone is standing within arm’s reach of me and may have threatened me, may have threatened my life, I worry that they have a box cutter or an open bottle,” she said.
Davis left the courthouse with several Legal Aid attorneys to have lunch at Forlini’s restaurant, where he ordered the fried tilapia.
He said he remained confident that he’d be cleared, even as he was jailed without bail.
“I was optimistic,” Davis said. “I knew it was going to happen eventually. If you work and have a job and do the right thing, the law will work out in your favor.”