By Joy Bergmann
Darrell Johnson, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting two women in two seemingly random attacks near West 79th Street and Broadway on the morning of December 2, 2021.
At a hearing before Judge Michele Rodney in Manhattan Criminal Court, Johnson accepted Assistant District Attorney Molly Presant’s offer: pleading guilty to one count of attempted second-degree assault, a class E felony, and one count of third-degree assault, a class A misdemeanor. Under the terms of the plea, he faces a sentence of 1.5 to 3 years in state prison.
According to police, Johnson punched the first victim, a 50-year-old woman, causing several broken teeth and a deep cut from her lip to the right side of her face, requiring plastic surgery. Two minutes later, Johnson struck the second victim, a 32-year-old woman, who suffered a broken jaw. Both sets of injuries caused redness, swelling, and substantial pain, court documents said.
Eyewitnesses helped direct NYPD officers to Johnson, leading to his capture shortly after the incident. “These were unprovoked attacks. [Johnson] was unhinged,” one witness told WSR, calling the situation “both terrifying and sad.”
In previous court appearances, Johnson’s defense attorney Kristin McAlpin said Johnson received inpatient psychiatric care following his Upper West Side arrest.
Johnson remains in custody on Rikers Island until his sentencing on April 11th.
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Thank you for closing the circle on this one.
Possible sentence of 1 1/2 to 3 years.Johnson has been on Rikers since Dec. 2021. At his sentencing on April 11 he will most likely be released as TIME SERVED. Is this really justice for the two women who were senselessly and brutally assaulted and suffered heinous disfiguring injuries?
That’s terrifying. If the city keeps voting for progressive loons who don’t believe in punishing criminals, it will become unlivable. My head is on a constant swivel and even on morning dog walks have I had some close calls. This is unacceptable.
Hes already been in jail for 2 year. Will be 2 years 4 months by April 11. Why shouldn’t that count against the sentence he receives?
Obviously, Alice is in wonderland.
Because the crimes (plural) should be for 20 years.
That’s a different issue. Regardless of the length of the sentence time already spent at Rikers should be subtracted.
OK, take 3 years off the 50 years sentence.
Two prisoners have already died on Rikers this year. It’s a horrific place. I doubt you or I would last two days there, much less two weeks, still less two years! The cell looks the same whether or not you’ve been convicted yet.
I worry that he will just be released without any provision for mental health care. It sounds like psychiatric problems played a role in the attacks. Locking him up won’t fix those, but neither will just dumping him on the street. They should get an AOT order on him and actually use it.
Maybe. Two years on Rikers is no cake walk. Which is not to say that I don’t have tremendous empathy for not only the physical but psychological trauma the women suffered.
Except it states that he has to serve that time in a state prison. I’m hoping that Rikers doesn’t count as a state prison. Does anyone know if that makes a difference? I don’t understand the whole process of a plea deal in a situation like this when everyone knows that he committed these crimes. Just frustrating as hell to know that this will most likely happen again when he is released.
Exactly! The DA should hang tough and relentlessly demand the maximum charge and sentence. After all he is a prosecutor not a conciliator.
You don’t get the maximum sentence on a plea agreement. That is because both sides have to agree to it, and why would anyone agree to a sentence with no benefit at all?
The max sentence on a class E felony is 4 years, anyway. Arguably this was not even attempted assault in the second degree (may not have qualified as “serious injury” UNDER THE LEGAL DEFINITION, which requires sustained disfigurement, so would depend on whether the first victim suffered lasting disfigurement, which I truly hope she did not!), but the class A misdemeanor of assault in the third degree (only requires injury of any kind), so getting a plea to attempted assault creates a certainty of longer jail time for the assailant (as against the possibility that the defendant might prevail on the issue of serious injury).
Why does this take so long? Could we hire more judges and other court officials. It is not fair to the accused or the victims.
I hope he is not going to just be released to the street with time served. Hopefully he is being evaluated for his mental health and if he cannot be a normally functioning member of society, he should be in a facility. The ACLU might argue otherwise but I prefer we err on the side of caution, particularly for someone who has already been found guilty.
He will be sent to one of the many homeless shelters on the UWS until he can secure permanent housing that gives priority to ex-cons. The list is long. He will be “offered, social services that he can decide to accept or not. He will likely do what he does, rinse and repeat. Will he be able to hold a job? Probably not and if so he might lose some of his benefits. We will hear, the next time, that the city deprived him of his rights and he actually the victim here? Rinse and repeat. Will he become the rally cry for more free social services? Yes. And what about his 2 victims that, if they still live here, are probably always looking over their shoulders in case they see him again? Who’s lives have been permanently altered?
Proper medical treatment for this guy from day one might well have prevented these women from having to go through their traumatic experiences in the first place. I think we can all agree that that is a much better outcome than him in jail (at huge cost to the city, I might add) and them left with their trauma! That is why good social services are valuable to ALL of society even if one doesn’t need them personally.
(I think if you look at the actual facts, you will see that there is very little permanent housing that gives priority to ex-convicts, especially if they were not previously homeless or are not being released with complex medical needs. There’s the Fortune Society and not a lot else.)
Then maybe an apartment in Manhattan where lots of people without a criminal record for violence against others also want to live isn’t where he gets to live at the burden of tax payers? So many non felons live in other places until they can afford to live in Manhattan. Not everyone gets to do it. Why does his situation make him more entitled? I support investing in people but there comes a point where you need to see positive return. Why is he deserving of unlimited assistance? Also, Doe Fund. they provide housing to be in their program. I also think ACE helps with housing. The person needs to be sober. Is that an unreasonable expectation for someone who expects other people to pay their way and wants people to invest In them? Help exists for many people if they really want it.
His attorney argued that he already received inpatient psychiatric care following his Upper West Side arrest. For how long? Do we consider him cured?
The extent of the injuries makes me shudder. I can’t even imagine the force of his punch. I’m wondering how the victims are doing today physically and emotionally.
Why did this take two whole years?
He needs to be permanently incarcerated for the safety of the public.
This person sounds like a danger (perhaps because of illness he can’t control and didn’t ask for) . I hope the guilty plea allows him to continue to receive psychiatric care that will not only calm him but prevent others from ever being hurt by him again. Best wishes to these poor victims.
Interesting how these types are all so mentally ill but somehow sane enough to always pick victims who can’t fight back.
He needs to be institutionalized indefinitely. Bring back asylums!
Spot on. They’re “mentally ill” but not so much that they’re sucker-punching large, young men.
Why do I suspect that eventually Johnson will be back out on the street and committing more crimes?
1.5 years? What a joke . He should get at least 10 years in jail for each victim.
And a bit disappointed here as he was released after committing those two vicious, assaults, and then committed another attack. Then he was put in jail. Why doesn’t the judge take that other attack into consideration?
He should have to work for the rest of his life to pay restitution to his victims. Why don’t we establish that as a punishment?
As seems to be the case, women are the victims of these attacks by the homeless and mentally ill men who roam my once safe neighborhood.
He has not been helped and he will not get better. He will repeat and or worsen his crime if not committed and possibly rehabilitated.
Speaking of the corner of 79/Broadway … has anybody noticed Karl has mellowed out? I think he got sober … he still begs for money, but is no loner standing in the median yelling and scaring people.
It’s clearly time to re-open state run hospitals for the intractably mentally ill. I’m not talking about some Dickensian houses of horrors. How about well run places where severely compromised people can get three meals a day and be kept clean and warm? Anyone who says that it’s “humane” or the “right” of severely, intractably mentaly ill people to be tossed out onto the streets to stab/punch/throw innocent commuters onto subway tracks, etc. or to sleep in urine and feces-soaked pants is misguided and cruel. This kind of thinking is so outdated.
Parents cannot leave children unattended since the children are deemed unable to demonstrate sound judgment across many situations yet severely mentally ill people somehow have sufficient “recognizance?” It’s time for the entire country and our elected “officials” to address the mentally ill population’s needs seriously and compassionately so EVERYONE can be safe again. How is this current set working for everyone?
Attacks on women are rarely if ever treated with the same seriousness as those on men. These assaults were attempted murders. He wasn’t successful so I guess he’ll not have to worry the next time he does it.
A. Nearly all criminal cases in NYC (if not state) are pleaded down at least one level. This or at least offer is on table.
Criminal court system simply cannot process large numbers of cases. Without plea bargaining things would simply grind to a halt.
B. Unlike convictions guilty pleas are not subject to reversal y appeal. So there is some finality of process if defendant takes a plea deal. There won’t be perhaps a lengthy trial and accused is now convicted and this cannot be reversed normally.
Purpose of criminal legal system is to dispense justice, not mete out punishment. If state (as in presiding judge) feels a plea agreement accomplishes latter for all sides, he or she will agree. If not court has options such as rejecting said deal.
He will get away with no more than a year in prison.
In reality, he needs life behind bars in a place that can take care of his soul and mind as much as keeping him inside so he can not harm others any more.