Mayor rips release of teen in cop attack

  Eyewitness News

(Bathgate-WABC, October 31, 2006) (WABC) -- Mayor Bloomberg ripped the Staten Island judge who freed a teen accused of driving his car into an NYPD officer.

"The judge lets the kid out on his own recognizance. This is someone who tried to kill a cop," Bloomberg said during an Albany news conference.

"It's a civil court judge, elected, serving in a criminal court," he said. "But talk about irresponsible applications of the law and lack of judgement, I can't think of anything worse. We ask our police officers every day to put their lives at risk, and when someone tries to mow one down, don't incarcerate the kid, at least until trial? I mean, it's crazy."

The officer sustained back injuries when he pulled the 17-year-old over Friday night because he was driving erratically near Allen Place and Kinghorn Street.

As the officer approached the car, police say the suspect slammed the vehicle in reverse and struck him, then smashed into a pole.

During the arraignment Sunday, Judge Desmond Green at first appeared incredulous that the suspect could be accused of two serious crimes in the same offense, driving while intoxicated and second-degree assault on a police officer.

"He was driving drunk and hit a cop?" Green said.

But after a heartfelt plea from the suspect's lawyer, Green wound up releasing the teen on his own recognizance, despite charges that could land the suspect up to 15 years in prison.

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