Viral ‘Jogger Joe’ enters not guilty plea to robbery charge
The man who gained internet notoriety as “Jogger Joe” after dismantling a homeless man’s encampment near Lake Merritt slipped quietly into a courtroom Monday morning in downtown Oakland and pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree robbery.
Henry Sintay, 32, was arrested June 11, two days after a confrontation with a man videotaping him with his cell phone. Just a day prior to that incident, Sintay was filmed by bystanders after he paused during a run to throw away the belongings of a homeless man named Drew, who resides by the lake. The following evening, Sintay returned to retrieve some of the items that he said had “fallen” into the lake.
The initial video sparked outrage online and showed the growing power of videos people share on social media in an effort to gain instant justice.
The second video, which appeared to show a physical confrontation between Sintay and a man asking him why he had acted in such a manner a day prior, led to Sintay’s arrest. After some discussion, Sintay grabbed the man’s phone, tussled with its owner and ran off as the phone continued to stream on Facebook Live, according to the footage.
Sintay was out of custody Monday on $55,000 bail.
Wearing a black shirt and black jeans, Sintay quickly left the courtroom after entering his plea. He avoided eye contact and declined to speak to reporters.
The case is another example of how social media has become a tool peopleuse to identify suspects in an effort to gain what they see as justice. In the Sintay case, the filming actually became part of the episode.
Sintay allegedly received online death threats after the first incident, apparently prompting him to return to the lake the next day to pull some of Drew’s belongings from the water. That decision led to the second incident and Sintay’s arrest.
Sintay works for a general contractor and confessed to the robbery of the phone, police said. The video of Sintay throwing away the homeless man’s belongings struck a chord with the Oakland community, in part because it came after another videorecorded incident at Lake Merritt that went viral in early May. In that incident, a white woman called police on two black men, Kenzie Smith and Onsayo Abram, and reported that they were unlawfully grilling with charcoal.
To many, the episodes have reflected larger issues at play, as Oakland and the Bay Area at large confront issues such as gentrification, racism, homelessness and an overall gap in empathy.
Manny Martinez, a 53-year-old high school English teacher interviewed at the lake Wednesday, said the incident “speaks to a much deeper ailment of this country and our divisions, whether it’s social class or race.”
Some of Sintay’s friends said that while his actions were inappropriate, he did not deserve the online vitriol, which included people telling Sintay that he deserved to die and should kill himself.
“He can be a jerk,” said a friend of Sintay’s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But he’s not a monster. I guess he was just having a moment.”