Wish I kept my name out of it: vid guy

RAMSEY ORTA claims he’s suffered a turbulent 12 months for shooting the video seen round the world last July.

Looking back, the 23-year-old Staten Island man wishes he’d done one thing differently after recording and releasing the enduring footage of Eric Garner’s chokehold death.

“I should’ve done it smarter, and not put my name out there,” he told the Daily News as the first anniversary of Garner’s death approached.

“I don’t regret taking the video,” he added. “It shined some light on stuff that was happening. It was a good thing. Now people are opening their eyes to what’s going on with some officers.”

Orta (pictured) was on the scene when the NYPD moved to arrest the 43-year-old Garner for allegedly selling untaxed loose cigarettes last July 17.

Using his phone, Orta kept recording as Officer Daniel Pantaleo put the bulky Garner in a chokehold despite the suspect’s repeated declaration, “I can’t breathe.”

In all, Orta shot 20 riveting minutes of video. The video was first posted on NYDailyNews.com.

“I’m just so glad that young man took video of him,” said Garner’s grateful mother, Gwen Carr. “They just thought they could do what they wanted to him, and it would be brushed under the rug like so many killings are.”

Orta passed along his continued support for Carr and the rest of Garner’s family as they fight for a federal prosecution in the death.

“I just hope they do what they have to do to get past this,” Orta said. “But I don’t want them to give up on the case. I don’t think they will.”

Orta and his lawyers declined to discuss his own legal problems, including a recent stint on Rikers Island. He was bailed out last Wednesday following his arrest for selling bogus Ecstasy to an undercover cop.

Orta — who has alleged that cops began harassing him after the Garner video — faces three other pending cases, two for arrests after Garner’s death and one for an arrest two months prior.

He also has at least eight prior convictions dating to 2010, court records show. Some are low-level fare-beating and marijuana cases, but he has also been convicted on some more serious charges.

In 2010, when Orta was 18, he was charged with having sex with a 12-year-old girl over a period of seven months. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. He also served time for possessing stolen property and selling drugs.

Orta was among those who criticized the Staten Island grand jury for issuing no indictments in the Garner death.

“I think they already had their minds made up,” he said in December. “I felt like it wasn’t fair at all. It wasn’t fair from the start.”