A group of EMTs rallied outside Manhattan Criminal Court this morning to blast the Manhattan DA for supposedly considering a plea deal that would let a Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney off the hook for allegedly attacking an EMT. In November, you'll recall, a Brooklyn ADA Michael Jaccarino, 30, was arrested after he allegedly beat and strangled an EMT worker who was trying to bring him to the hospital. The attack was so bad that EMT Teresa Soler thought she was going to be choked to death in the back of the ambulance. “When the cops got there, they took pictures because you could see his fingerprints on my neck,” she tells 1010 WINS.
An allegedly wasted Jaccarino was staggering across the Brooklyn Bridge on foot around 1 a.m. Saturday when an ambulance picked him up; someone had called 911 about a highly intoxicated man. After being confronted on the Manhattan side of the pedestrian path, Jaccarino voluntarily got into the ambulance to go to Beth Israel Medical Center. But once inside, he allegedly took off his seatbelt, then slapped and choked Soler. She suffered bruising to her chest, face and wrist, including a black eye.
Jaccarino was charged with second-degree assault, criminal obstruction of breathing, menacing and harassment. But according to a letter from Joe Conzo, the Vice President of Soler's union, "It is said that the Manhattan D.A. office will not present this case to a Grand Jury and that he will plea bargain." The DA's office does not comment on open investigations, and this one is still in progress. But Soler says prosecutors are going to cut Jaccarino a deal.
"They told me basically that they can't prove intent because he was drunk," Soler, 46, told The Post today. "They say he can argue that he was so drunk, he didn't know what he was doing," she said. "I don't know what was on his mind, but when he was in the ambulance with me he flashed his ADA [Assistant District Attorney] badge. In my opinion that means he knew what he was doing—and thought he was going to get a free pass." A well-connected lawyer who thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants and not suffer the consequences? Now we've seen everything.
