DeB PAL’S ‘DRUG’ KID
Rachel’s killer son a dealer: p’cutor
The son of a former top de Blasioadministration aide is a coldhearted drug dealer who fatally stabbed a teenage underling during a dispute over money, a prosecutor alleged in court Tuesday.
Khari Noerdlinger, 19, allegedly killed Savion Lewallen, 16, while fending off an armed robbery around the corner from the Edgewater, NJ, home where he lives with his mom, Rachel Noerdlinger, and her convicted-killer boyfriend.
Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said Khari Noerdlinger and Lewallen — whom she identified as “S.L.” — “were in fact drug dealers,” and that “S.L. worked for Noerdlinger.”
“Evidence will show S.L. thought or believed he was owed money” by Noerdlinger, and called to say “he was coming to visit him” with a car full of people, Grootenboer said.
Noerdlinger allegedly armed himself with a knife that he plunged into Lewallen’s right leg during a confrontation with Lewallen and his four companions at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
The seveninchdeep wound severed the victim’s femoral artery, Grootenboer said.
Noerdlinger then returned home and calmly told an unidentified witness “that he had, in fact, stabbed somebody,” then returned to the scene with that person to cover up the crime by removing unspecified “items,” Grootenboer said.
Noerdlinger — whose eyes opened wide at one point during the court hearing in Hackensack, NJ — pleaded not guilty through his lawyer to aggravated manslaughter, weapon possession and hindering apprehension.
He was sent back to the slammer on $500,000 cash bail set following his arrest Monday morning.
Rachel Noerdlinger — who quit her $170,000ayear City Hall job following her son’s 2014 trespassing arrest at a known drug spot in Washington Heights — was driven to court by Erica Ford, founder of the antiviolence LIFE Camp, a registered charity based in Jamaica, Queens.
But the mom did not attend her son’s arraignment, and refused to comment outside court.
Rachel Noerdlinger served as chief of staff for Mayor de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, holding the job through embarrassing exposés — including how her livein boyfriend is a convicted drug dealer and killer who has posted anticop rants and crude sexual comments online.
She also served as a media adviser to the Rev. Al Sharpton since the late 1990s. Following Khari Noerdlinger’s trespassing arrest, Sharpton denied rumors that he was the teen’s dad.
Defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said outside court that Khari Noerdlinger acted in selfdefense, claiming he had been “jumped” and “attacked with a machete and a baseball bat.”
Asked if Khari dealt drugs, Lichtman said: “Regardless of what he was, it doesn’t change the fact that he was attacked by armed people.”
Lewallen’s four companions, who live in Rockland County, were busted on armedrobbery and conspiracy charges. Each was being held in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Those defendants include three men, ages 18 to 23, and a woman, Mirleny Tremols, 33, who is awaiting trial in a gangrelated moneyorder scheme that was broken up in 2014.