It’s a purr-fect day for BuzzFeed ‘OK to beat a woman’
Homeless man who attacked my wife back on street, hub rages
An Upper West Sider wants to know why a homeless man arrested for broad-daylight sidewalk attacks on his wife and another woman is roaming free instead of awaiting trial in jail.
“He gets arrested and they give him lunch and dinner, then release him,” the husband told the Daily News. “That’s a perfect outcome for a homeless guy. I guess it’s OK to beat the s--t out of a poor woman and as long as you don’t kill that person you can do this every day.”
The first victim was walking her dog, a Bernedoodle, near the steps of the First Baptist Church at 79th St. and Broadway about 9:20 a.m. on Thursday when the stranger approached, patted the dog, and punched her in the face, the victim’s husband said.
“This guy just came and clubbed her,” said the husband, who asked not to be named.
The husband said his wife, 50, was briefly knocked unconscious.
“She remembers coming to on the steps of the church,” the husband said.
Several of her teeth were broken and she suffered a gnarly gash on her right cheek that runs from her lip to the side of her face, the husband said.
“It was a deep cut,” the husband said, adding that his wife will need plastic surgery. “We’re not sure if he had a weapon in his hand.”
The attacker took off from the scene, and two minutes later and a block away — near Zabar’s, the famous grocery store at Broadway and 80th St. — punched another woman in the face, a criminal complaint says.
Cops from the 20th Precinct soon arrived at the scene, where they arrested Darrell Johnson, 28.
The most serious charges against Johnson are two counts of third-degree misdemeanor assault, which means he “recklessly caused physical injury to another person.” He was also charged with attempted assault, aggravated harassment and harassment.
The charges are misdemeanors not eligible for cash bail under New York law, said a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
At a hearing Friday, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert
Rosenthal freed Johnson and ordered him back to court in February for the Upper West Side case and for another misdemeanor assault in August at Harlem Hospital. A warrant for Johnson’s arrest in the Harlem case was pending when he was busted on the Upper West Side.
If Johnson’s Upper West Side victims suffered what the law defines as serious physical injury or if a deadly weapon or “dangerous instrument” was involved, Johnson (inset) could have been charged with second-degree assault and ordered held on bail, Vance’s spokeswoman said.
Serious physical injury is defined in New York’s penal code as creating “a substantial risk of death, or which causes death or serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ.”
Johnson is not accused of using a weapon in the assaults.
“How this guy was able to get released I don’t know,” said the first victim’s husband. “[The courts] let him go because he didn’t have a perfect baseball score when it comes to hurting people. Now they’ve given him a chance at making a home run.”
Detectives’ Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo blamed Johnson’s release pending trial on the bail reform laws enacted in 2020, which made most misdemeanors and minor felonies ineligible for bail.
“One woman disfigured. Minutes later, a block away, a second woman assaulted, her jaw broken,” the union leader said. “And this violent criminal isn’t in jail. He’s out on the street right now looking for more victims.”
The criminal complaint in Johnson’s case does not say that the first victim was disfigured or that the second victim suffered a broken jaw. Instead, it says the first woman suffered “redness, swelling, bleeding and a laceration,” and the second woman suffered “redness and swelling ... and substantial pain.”
Johnson has documented mental illness, including schizophrenia, legal system sources said.
New York County Defender Services, which serves criminal suspects who can’t afford lawyers, says the city needs to do a better job dealing with mentally ill and homeless suspects.
“There’s nobody from homeless services in the courthouses ever. Mental illness is a huge problem, but there is no one there to help,” said the group’s executive director, Stan Germán.
“Let’s help people rather than just hoping,” he urged. “If we’re not helping that person, nobody should be surprised.”
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and other law enforcement leaders have repeatedly asked for changes to the bail reform laws so violent felons are not put back on the streets.
“How many more New Yorkers will be assaulted, shot and killed before the politicians wake up?” DiGiacomo asked.
“NYPD detectives are doing our jobs. When will the politicians do their jobs?”