Love-shove slay defense
Prosecutors say a former club promoter killed his 72-year-old crack customer by giving him a shove, but the defendant says the two men were horsing around when a tragic accident occurred.
Lequan Clark, 31, pushed David Reiff hard enough that the older man “fell to the ground, hit his head and never moved again,” Assistant District Attorney Megan Joy told a jury at the start of Clark’s trial for criminally negligent homicide this month in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Clark, who was a promoter for SoHo hotspot Greenhouse, had gone to the Corsi Houses on E. 117th St. around 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2013, to confront the older man, the prosecutor told jurors.
The pair “exchanged some curse words,” she said.
Moments later, the younger man knocked Reiff to the ground in the lobby of the public housing building for senior citizens and the victim immediately looked “limp” and “lifeless.”
Within days, he had died in a hospital.
But Clark’s lawyers argue he had no malicious intent toward the older man and cannot be held accountable for the unfortunate event.
Defense lawyer Robert Georges suggested in his opening statement that Clark and Reiff were pals who were “playing around.”
“This was a sad accident but not a crime,” Georges said Monday.
“Our client feels horrible about David’s passing, but we feel equally strong that there was not criminal negligence.”
Prosecutors say Clark was Reiff’s crack dealer and that Reiff was a regular user of the drug.
Clark was previously accused of date-raping a woman.
After two mistrials, the case was dismissed on speedy trial grounds.
He is also awaiting sentencing on two felony drug possession cases in Manhattan, records show.