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A New York City judge has issued a subpoena against former author Alex O’Keefe acclaimed tv series BearWho was it Last month he was handcuffed and taken off the train. Following complaints about their seating positions.
O’Keefe, who has also worked as a speechwriter for prominent politicians including Senator Elizabeth Warren, was handcuffed and led away. Metro-North Train By the police last month. O’Keefe, who is Black, says he was targeted after a white passenger complained about him.
O’Keefe was issued a summons for disorderly conduct following the incident. The summons was issued by a judge on Tuesday, a typical outcome for these types of alleged violations. associated Press Report. O’Keefe also shared a instagram post “Dismissed all charges against me, ruling that they were ‘facially inadequate,'” a Bronx Criminal Court judge confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
“This means the state failed to present basic facts demonstrating any crime,” O’Keefe wrote on Instagram. “Sitting is not illegal.”
His attorney, Lindsay Lewis, said, “When Mr. O’Keefe appeared in criminal court on Tuesday in compliance with a summons issued after police removed him from Metro North on September 18, the court dismissed the disorderly conduct violation, ending the case against him.” Independent,
Video of the September 18 incident went viral after O’Keefe shared it on Instagram,
The footage of O’Keefe shows Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officers placing handcuffs on his wrists and pointing to an elderly woman, saying, “You’re going to arrest a black man on the train because this white woman said she didn’t like the way I sat on the train.”
“You called the police, you called the police to arrest a black man on a train,” he continued. “I haven’t done anything illegal.”
An officer responded, “Let’s go.”
After handcuffing him, officers removed O’Keefe from the train. Once they were outside, a second video that appears to be taken by another person shows O’Keefe facing a wall while talking with officers. At one point, O’Keefe can be heard saying: “They just saw the black man and they arrested me.”
O’Keefe’s Instagram video has received over two thousand comments and hundreds of reposts.
“An older white lady got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to adjust the way I was sitting. I refused so she went to the conductor and complained,” he wrote on Instagram. “The conductor called the police and stopped the train. While waiting for the police to arrive, old Karen’s friend said, ‘You’re not a minority anymore.'”
MTA Police Department said Independent Officers were responding to “reports of a disoriented passenger” and the conductor “reported that a passenger in seat two had refused to remove his feet from seat one.”
The officers’ investigation, as well as his body-worn cameras and on-board security footage, showed he had “both legs spread out on the seat next to him,” the agency said. Officers boarded the train and asked O’Keefe to exit, but police say he “refused.”
“When he continued to refuse to exit, and caused a six-minute delay in service for several hundred other riders, the passenger involved was handcuffed and removed from the train, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, a violation, at approximately 1048 without further incident, and was allowed to board the next train to complete his trip,” the police department said.
The agency said O’Keefe was never arrested.
O’Keefe’s wife, Araceli Jimenez, launched a gofundme To cover his legal expenses. The incident happened just a few days after their marriage, he said. More than 200 people had donated a total of $11,531 as of Wednesday afternoon.
“This experience has been confusing, painful, and traumatizing for our family,” Jimenez wrote on the GoFundMe page.