A Bronx suspect busted for a one-punch knockout that left a stranger fighting for life was released without bail Thursday to the outrage of the still-hospitalized victim’s family.
Bui Van Phu appeared in Bronx Criminal Court with his hands cuffed behind his back wearing a gray shirt and black pants. He was freed on a misdemeanor assault charge for last Friday’s savage attack on the helpless Jesus Cortes outside a local restaurant.
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The NYPD had initially charged Van Phu with attempted murder, but the Bronx district attorney went with only an assault and harassment charge.
“It’s just something crazy, because he had previous criminal history,” Anel Cortes, 29, a niece of the victim, said of Van Phu’s release. “I’m in shock right now because I didn’t expect that.”
The 55-year-old defendant, who was booted from his home in a nearby men’s shelter after his arrest, is already on lifetime parole for a 1995 Bronx sexual assault case that landed him behind bars for six years.
Under the state’s bail reform laws, misdemeanor assault is typically not eligible for bail unless another factor in the case allows it, such as another pending, active case where a suspect is accused of causing harm to someone.
It’s not clear if Van Phu could have been locked up as a parole violator after his release without bail.
Judge Giyang An noted Van Phu is charged with a misdemeanor “for now” in the new case. The judge ordered Van Phu placed under supervised release pending a Sept. 6 court date. The judge described his supervised release as more strict than the conditions of his parole.
The Bronx DA’s office didn’t address why it charged misdemeanor assault and not attempted murder — the charge initially filed by cops.
Despite the family’s outrage, suspects in one-punch cases often only face misdemeanor assault charges initially.
Recently, an Illinois man was charged with the low-level assault offense in December after police say he threw a punch that killed a father of two outside a Brooklyn restaurant. And in March, an off-duty firefighter was charged with misdemeanor assault after police say he threw a single, killer punch at a man during a bar brawl.
“Generally, when somebody punches somebody else, the intent is not to kill them,” said veteran defense lawyer Mario Gallucci. “You usually can only charge a misdemeanor assault, unless you can prove there was intent to commit a homicide.”
Prosecutors are required to weigh the circumstances of the incident before seeking further charges, including the intent of the attacker, whether the victim was drunk or aggressive before the punch, or the person had a medical condition, Gallucci said.
Cortes, 52, remains unconscious and listed in critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center nearly a week after he was allegedly attacked from behind by Van Phu, who police said put on a pair of work gloves before delivering a devastating right-hand punch to the victim’s head.
Cortes had just exited Fuego Tipico, a restaurant on E. 188th St. near the Grand Concourse, and was talking with a group of men and women when he was slugged around 10:45 p.m. Friday, cops said.
The two men had no interaction before the punch, and investigators have found no evidence the pair even knew each other, police said.
The family has been told there is a long recovery ahead for the victim given the severity of his injuries.
“He’s in the hospital,” the victim’s niece Anel said Thursday. “He’s in a bed. We don’t know when is he gonna be, if he’s gonna be back OK, if he’s gonna wake up. … They say days, weeks, months. We don’t know.”
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Back in the day when Patriotic Italian Mafia Criminals ran their fiefdoms within the Bronx, not “Hate America First” guys like today, guys who misbehaved like Van Phu were not released to go home with ankle bracelets, but sent to the river wearing cement overshoes. Oh, for the good old days before our catholic American criminals embraced unworkable secular socialism, where justice was swift and repeat offenders did the Cole Porter repeat thing’, not the Joe Biden Disney Fantasia dance of the hours:
“I’d sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of havin’ you near
In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear
“Don’t you know, little fool, you never can win?
Use your mentality, wake up to reality”
In those days is was get woke to reality or end up sleeping with the fishes, otherwise known today as “The Good Old Days”: with Liberty and Justice for all.
YOU Can bet had the person he attacked, SHOT the perp in self defense, HE WOULD Be the one going to jail, WITHOUT BAIL.
No way of knowing how many mentally ill people prowling about waiting to attack. They are not getting the help they need and probably never will. It appears government takes better care of illegal aliens and foreign nations than its own citizens. Evidently THIS is what Biden voters said they wanted.
What?? This parolee, sex offender and convicted felon gets let out of jail without bail after an unprovoked assault on a stranger in New York City, that leaves the victim fighting for his life. What will these Democrats do if the victim dies???
No friggin wonder crime is so high in liberal Democrat ruled cities. 🙁 🙁 🙁
I wonder. HAD HE DONE THIS to a DA, Judge, or anyone else working FOR the state’s or city’s legislature, would they have been so willing to “DOWN GRADE” the charges, to ‘simple assault’ which is a misdemeanor?
I think they lowered the charges ,so they wouldn’t have to send him back to prison. He is out on parole ,so why would this send him back to prison ??
That’s what gets my goat too. THE # OF THESE STORIES We hear, where someone has LITERALLY BROKEN THEIR PAROLE/PROBATION, is so astounding, that not once do the ever seem to get sent back to jail..
IT makes me wonder
IF COURTS won’t enforce the laws
IF DA’s won’t enforce the laws
WHY THE HELL do we still even need LEGISLATURES, who make laws that DON’T get enforced!?!??!
I hope he encounters the wrong person who will be delighted to knock him out.
OR Worse!
he should be canned.
That’s why for years i have said EVERY DAMN ONE of these leftist commucrat DA’s, Lawyers and judges, WHO KEEP LETTING THESE crooks out to re-offend, should be CRIMINALLY CHARGED AS Accessories!!!
Some of the folks on Fox News are sounding kind of nervous about living in NYC. Time to move to Florida and get a new job.
I know i would!
This is beyond Ridiculous, are there not laws against ASSAULT and attempted Manslaughter in NEW YAWK…..Where is a VIGILANTE when you need one! Because the Police’s hands are tied and if they arrest these Criminals they know they will be out by Morning…Places like New York need to WAKE UP and smell the B/S that their OFFICIALS, PROSECUTORS, JUDGES are spreading, for it is you NEW YORK LEGAL CITIZENS who are at RISK…..Time to RISE UP and put these people out of a job that are supposed to prosecute and sentence these CRIMINAL THUGS who are attacking you and your fellow citizens, this would be the best way to support your POLICE who put their lives on the line against these same CRIMINALS that the afore-mentioned IDIOTS let go without any consequences!