Logjam of suspects await action by court

Hundreds of people arrested for looting and other charges during the George Floyd protests have been crammed into Central Booking in Manhattan, some for days, as they wait to see a judge — and state court officials blamed the logjam on police officers filing paperwork at a snail’s pace.

An extra 400 people have been packed into Central Booking, right next to the Manhattan Detention Complex, slowing down the arraignment process, the Office of Court Administration confirmed to the Daily News Tuesday.

“To docket the case and arraign someone, the court needs the arrest paperwork to be processed, which the Police Department is doing glacially,” said Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for OCA.

The court system opened up two new arraignment courtrooms, or parts, to handle the flood of new cases and will designate a third part on Wednesday night to handle looting suspects. Lawyers for the defendants expect many won’t be seen by a judge until at least Wednesday.

“They had like 28 guys in my small pen,” said Rashaad DeFreitas, 28, a lower Manhattan resident who lost his industrial cleaning job last month due to the pandemic. “We could barely fit.“

“I was arrested Saturday at 1 a.m.,” said DeFreitas, who was arrested in SoHo and charged with third-degree burglary, on looting allegations. “I’m just getting out now Tuesday at 5 p.m.”

Most of the pending cases are for looting, “which translates to a felony burglary charge, which is a now nonbailable offense,” Chalfen said, meaning a judge would be required to release the suspects under the state’s bail reform laws.

DeFreitas described a stark scene in his holding cell — people coughing, some bleeding.

“They’re hardly feeding nobody,” said Jerwayne Sinclair, 24 of Crown Heights. “They gave us one peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever since I got locked up. It’s been 24 hours since I ate.”

Sinclair said 30 people were packed into his cell. “Half the people had no protection, no masks, no nothing,” he said. “If you didn’t have it walking in to the cell, then you didn’t have it.”

When asked about Chalfen’s “glacially” remark, an NYPD spokesman said the department had “no comment on this suggestion. We are arresting several hundred people a day. And we are keeping several thousand cops on the street at all times.”

Though a defendant has a right to be arraigned within 24 hours of their arrest, the flood of cases has meant suspects have waited to stand before a judge for up to two and a half days in the crowded lower Manhattan jail, a source told The News.

“These defendants are sitting on top of each other in the cells. We’re putting them in places in MDC that we haven’t used in months,” the source said.

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges have been working remotely since the coronavirus pandemic first battered the city in midMarch, with defendants also appearing on a screen to minimize the risk of contamination.

People coming into custody who are asymptomatic have been housed at MDC, which has capacity for approximately 800 inmates, since March 22. Those who have symptoms or have tested positive for coronavirus havet been sent to the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island, the Correction Department confirmed.

Police took more than 700 people into custody from Monday into early Tuesday — compared to 360 the night before — as they tried to quell widespread looting across the city, authorities said.

Benjamin DeHay, 35,of Woodside, Queens, said he was in custody for three days since his arrest on looting charges early Sunday.

“There are at least 20 people in my cell. Only the early birds got a place to lie down,” he said.