Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said there was “something rotten” about Wednesday’s indictment of former Marine Daniel Penny in the choking death of panhandler Jordan Neely on a Manhattan subway train last month.
Blakeman, who has been a staunch Penny defender, made the claim Thursday, a day after a grand jury indicted the 24-year-old Long Islander on not-yet-revealed charges in the incident, in which Penny says he was only defending himself and other straphangers from Neely’s threats.
“There’s something rotten about this prosecution, just like there was something rotten about the prosecution of Joseph Alba, the bodega store worker who was defending himself,” Blakeman said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“Daniel Penny’s the good Samaritan, and if you listen to the witnesses’ accounts of what happened, it defies logic that he’s being prosecuted.”
He then added: “People who criticize me for speaking out about Daniel Penny, I looked them in the eye and I said, ‘Let me ask you a question. Would you want Daniel Penny on a subway with your daughter or would you want Jordan Neely?’
“And that shuts them up right away because people with common sense, good Samaritans, they realize that we want people to take action when someone is doing something that could be harmful to others.”
The NYPD charged Penny with criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter for the death of the unarmed homeless man.
Penny told The Post he subdued Neely, 30, after the belligerent career criminal began threatening to kill straphangers and throwing trash. Although Neely did not attack anyone on the train, Penny said he feared the situation would escalate to violence.
The military veteran deployed a prolonged chokehold that a witness who partially filmed it said lasted for 15 minutes.
Penny, who has said he did not intend to kill Neely, disputed that account in a Sunday statement.
“Between stops, it was only a couple of minutes, so the whole interaction, less than five minutes,” the suspect said.
The case has become a political lightning rod as some moderate Democrats joined conservatives like Blakeman and GOP presidential contenders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in coming to Penny’s defense, while liberal activists and lawmakers like US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded he be prosecuted for the killing.
A fund to raise money for Penny’s legal expenses that had been promoted by DeSantis and other Republicans had raised $2.9 million by Thursday afternoon.
Penny was set to be arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on June 28 on the grand jury’s charges.
He was released on $100,000 bond after pleading not guilty to second-degree manslaughter last month.
The grand jury’s indictment was required to enable prosecutors to bring the case to trial under New York law.
With Post wires