In Manhattan, repeated offenders are frequently given leniency, allowing them to continue their criminal activities. This trend persists as District Attorney Alvin Bragg focuses considerable effort on legal actions against former President Donald Trump.
Cases involving repeat offenders, such as an individual with at least 134 arrests and a manslaughter suspect who received a minimal prison sentence, highlight how New York City’s legal system, influenced by District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the state’s bail reform law, permits these individuals repeated opportunities to re-offend.
Upon assuming office in 2021, Bragg issued a memo to his staff emphasizing the need to “reduce pretrial incarceration” except for “very serious cases.” His approach led to the downgrading of 52% of felony charges to misdemeanors, as reported by his office in November 2022.
1. Clive Porter
In one instance, a man with a history of over 50 arrests was taken into custody after allegedly assaulting four people in a single day.
Clive Porter, 33, faced arrest on Wednesday after he reportedly punched a 45-year-old man, causing the victim to fall onto subway tracks in Lower Manhattan.
Officials stated that Porter yelled an anti-Asian slur before fleeing the scene. The New York Post reported that authorities linked Porter to four earlier attacks the same day, one of which resulted in a 72-year-old man suffering a broken nose.
Clive Porter is charged with alleged assault as a hate crime, reckless endangerment and harassment, according to The New York Post (Obtained by The New York Post)
He was charged with assault as a hate crime, reckless endangerment and harassment, according to the report.
Porter’s laundry list of criminal activity includes 61 felonies and 24 misdemeanors, The Post reported. Porter was also arrested on Oct. 14 after allegedly punching a victim in the face and threatening the person with a knife.
Alvin Bragg’s office recommended supervised release since the top charge, which was misdemeanor assault, isn’t eligible for bail.
Clive Porter is accused of sucker punching a stranger inside the Bowery and Delancey Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, causing the victim to fall onto the subway tracks in New York City on Oct. 29, 2025, according to The New York Post. (Google Maps)
2. Jaia Cruz
24-year-old Jaia Cruz pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter charges in the January fatal stabbing of U.S. Postal Carrier Ray Hodge III that happened during an argument.
Cruz is set to serve 15 years in prison after agreeing to a plea deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which also reduced a second-degree murder charge to first-degree manslaughter.
According to the New York Post, Cruz had a “history of knife violence” which included resisting arrest, menacing another person with a box cutter, and a knifepoint mugging.
Hodge’s mother, Ada Rice, said Cruz stabbed her son seven times.
Jaia Cruz, a 24 year old female was arrested. She was in handcuffs and transported by the NYPD from the 28 Precinct after being charged in allegedly stabbing a USPS postal worker to death in a deli while working in Harlem. (Kyle Mazza/Sipa/IMAGN)
“She didn’t show remorse initially in the beginning. She said she was happy when she was stabbing him,” Rice told Fox News Digital. “She stabbed him. She kept stabbing him. She didn’t stab him once, she stabbed him seven times. She said he was gonna be maggot food. She enjoyed it. She told another reporter she hates Black men.”
She said the lenient plea deal sends a message to other criminals.
“They’re setting an example that it’s OK to murder,” she told Fox News Digital. “You will be home so quick, because even though it says on paper 15, they’ll never do 15 years, so they won’t think twice about it.”
Manhattan District Attorney is running for re-election during the 2025 cycle. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
3. Michael Wilson
37-year-old Michael Wilson, who has racked up over 230 arrests, was arrested once again in June after he was allegedly riding between train cars and lied about his personal information when asked by officers, according to The Post.
In May, Wilson was arrested for allegedly smoking crack on a subway train, according to police.
Wilson was arrested in February for allegedly swiping a subway rider through a turnstile and received cash in exchange. When officers searched his body, they allegedly found six MetroCards.
Despite the lengthy rap sheet, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office elected not to prosecute Wilson “in the interest of justice.”
One of the felonies Wilson has been convicted of previously was violent, according to the report.
4. Harold Gooding
A man dubbed as “recidivist No. 1” by Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, Harold Gooding, who has at least 134 prior arrests for charges such as grand larceny, drug possession, armed robbery, burglary has repeatedly been released on bail.
In one instance, on March 28 after being released from Rikers, Gooding was accused of stealing 30 bottles of vitamins in Manhattan that were valued at $1,511, according to The Post.
In April, he was accused of stealing cleaning supplies and three pairs of glasses from the same store. He was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and two counts of petit larceny.
All the charges, however, weren’t bail-eligible due to the state’s 2019 no-bail law, sending Gooding back out onto the streets.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced multiple “heinous attacks” against NYPD officers in a post on X. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
Without naming prosecutors, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in February harshly criticized district attorneys in the city.
“Before they can even finish that paperwork, their perp is back out on the street, immediately returned to the neighborhood and the people that they just victimized,” Tisch said. “It’s demoralizing, it’s unsustainable, and it defies common sense.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Bragg’s office for comment.
