Cello there again, judge!
Measly bail on shoplift
The woman who walked free after allegedly whacking a subway cellist with a bottle was busted on shoplifting charges — with the same judge setting a paltry $500 bail this time.
Amira Hunter (bottom right), 23, was busted for allegedly shoplifting a $325 Moncler baseball cap from a Midtown Nordstrom at around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday despite boasting to police, “I thought they would let me go,” prosecutors said Wednesday.
Hunter’s release came just days after she was released without bail by Judge Marva Brown for hitting cellist Iain S. Forrest in the head while he performed in the Herald Square subway station on Feb. 19.
Brown ordered Hunter held on $500 bond Wednesday, shrugging off a $10,000 bail request from prosecutors, who said Hunter was a “fugitive” when she stole the pricey lid.
“The defendant time and time again commits crimes of harm to identifiable people and property. For this reason, the people request that the court set bail,” the prosecutor said.
Hunter’s attorney, Joseph Conza, requested no bail because Hunter’s petit larceny charge in itself isn’t bail eligible, he said. Brown made her bail determination after examining Hunter’s criminal history “including the fact that Ms. Hunter was here in this very courtroom on Feb. 29, 2024,” Brown said.
Hunter, of Brooklyn, was busted for the Nordstrom theft after a witreport ness called 911 to the alleged crime, authorities said. That arrest came less than one week after Hunter was nabbed for allegedly bashing Forrest in the head with a metal water bottle. Brown cut Hunter loose at her arraignment the following day — despite the prosecutor pointing out that she had failed to appear to three of her five court days in other, unrelated cases.
At the time of her arrest last week, Hunter had a bench warrant out for her arrest in two petit larceny cases, the Manhattan DA’s Office said. She was arrested in October last year on grand larceny charges for supposedly stealing bathing suits worth $2,050 from Bergdorf Goodman, sources said. Hunter also was arrested twice for assaulting her mother in 2019, according to police sources.