QUEENS, N.Y. — A Queens Criminal Court judge on Tuesday released an accused man on nonmonetary conditions in a domestic violence case, lifting a $10,000 cash bail that had been imposed only five days earlier. The decision came despite prosecution objections and after the court learned the accused was already being supervised under nonmonetary conditions in a separate Manhattan case.
Judge Anthony M. Battisti adjourned the matter and ordered the accused released on nonmonetary conditions during a brief appearance in Part AP4. The order replaced bail that had been set at the accused’s arraignment on June 18, when the court fixed bail at $10,000 cash, a $20,000 insured bond or a $20,000 partially secured surety bond.
The accused faces nine counts stemming from a June 3 incident, according to court records. The top charge is second-degree burglary, a felony, and the accused is also charged with the felonies of aggravated criminal contempt and first-degree criminal contempt for allegedly violating an order of protection.
The remaining counts are misdemeanors: third-degree assault, criminal obstruction of breathing, fourth-degree criminal mischief, petit larceny and second-degree criminal contempt. The accused was arrested June 17 and pleaded not guilty to all counts at arraignment, records show.
At the June 18 arraignment before Judge Maria T. Gonzalez, the court set bail, issued a temporary order of protection and referred the case to a problem-solving or alternative court program.
What the bail figure did not reflect was that the accused was, at the time it was set, already answering to a New York County Supreme Court case in Manhattan — and already out on nonmonetary conditions there.
In that case, the accused is charged with two felony counts under state Correction Law for a registered sex offender’s failure to verify his address. Court records show the Manhattan court issued a bench warrant June 9 and exonerated bail, then, after the warrant was returned June 15, released the accused on nonmonetary conditions.
Deputy Public Defender Susannah Eve Waldman represents the accused in that matter, which is set to return July 1 before Judge Sara Litman.
The two dockets, taken together, sketch an accused being managed across two boroughs at once and a Queens court that, within five days, reversed its own decision to require money for release.
That reversal is the heart of what court watchers flag as an everyday injustice in the bail context: the question of whether a person is held, or nearly held, before trial not because of the danger they pose or their risk of flight, but because of what they can pay.
New York law permits cash bail on the violent felony and contempt charges the accused faces here.
The temporary order of protection remains in effect, and the underlying charges are unresolved. The accused is due back in Queens Criminal Court on July 29 and in Manhattan on July 1.
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