New York City is asking a judge to dismiss a wrongful arrest lawsuit that has been filed by an ex-bodega clerk who was formerly accused of murder by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).
The ex-bodega clerk, according to Fox News, is 61-year-old Jose Alba.
There is a chance that you may be familiar with Alba and the reason why he faced murder charges.
The incident happened back in July 2022.
The incident involved Alba, a customer - Austin Simon - and his girlfriend, Tina Lee.
The New York Post reports, "Alba, 61, was thrust into the spotlight in July 2022 when customer Austin Simon angrily confronted him and pulled him up by the collar, demanding an apology after the clerk denied Simon’s girlfriend chips for her daughter."
The outlet continues, "The clerk grabbed a knife and killed Smith, 35, and was put in jail on a second-degree murder charge that was later dropped following an outpouring of support, including from Mayor [Eric] Adams [D] who declared “this hard-working New Yorker was doing his job, and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him.”
It was Bragg's office that decided to dismiss the charges - but not until Alba spent nearly a week in jail at Rikers Island.
The matter, however, did not end there. Rather, Alba decided to file a wrongful arrest lawsuit against New York City, Bragg, and New York Police Department (NYPD) Detective William Garcia.
It is this wrongful arrest lawsuit that New York City is now trying to get dismissed.
Fox News reports, "lawyers for the city claimed, in a Friday court filing, that they had reason to charge Alba based on the available evidence, which includes testimony from Simon's girlfriend, witness testimony, and surveillance video of the incident."
The idea, of course, is that, if the city "had reason to charge Alba," then the wrongful arrest lawsuit has no basis.
It is unclear whether the city will be successful in getting the case dismissed. Alba's lawyer - Richard Cardinale - has called the dismissal motion "outrageous." Cardinale explained to Fox News why, saying:
The city’s lawyers mischaracterized the incident and lawsuit brought forth by Jose Alba by misstating in their motion to dismiss, that Jose Alba was the bad guy and the aggressor. Part of the city's motion to dismiss right now in the civil case says Austin Simon’s girlfriend, Tina Lee, corroborated a series of events to support Alba’s arrest.
According to Cardinale, no such corroboration exists.
