A prosecutor working for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has been suspended without pay following a strange altercation in Queens late Saturday night. 41-year-old Yaser Othman, who's been an assistant district attorney for two years, was driving on the Whitestone Expressway when he allegedly swerved in front of four narcotics officers traveling in an unmarked vehicle. Sources tell the Daily News Othman was driving erratically, and the cops and other vehicles "had to swerve to avoid colliding" with him. So they pulled him over, but Othman refused to get out of the car.
Police say Othman took a swing at one of the sergeants when they forced him out of the car and were putting the handcuffs on him. After cops say they found a joint in a cigarette carton, he was charged with attempted assault of a police officer, obstructing justice, resisting arrest, marijuana possession and reckless endangerment, DNA Info reports. But in an interview with the NY Post, Othman insinuated that he was set up. “I am innocent of what they say that I did," Othman insists. "The truth is going to come out. I don’t know anything about a marijuana cigarette. I can’t say if they planted it." If they did, it would hardly be a first.
Othman was arraigned on Sunday and released without bail. He tells the News that during his time in the clink all he kept thinking was "this can’t be happening and someone will come and apologize to me." We're sure Ray Kelly is putting together a nice conciliatory muffin basket for him at this very moment.
