Tiffany Harris, the anti-Semitic slapper, on Monday was arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges of two unprovoked assaults against Jewish women last December. She pleaded not guilty and was released on her own recognizance because the charges did qualify for bail under the state’s new laws.
Harris, one of Brooklyn’s most frequently arrested residents, is the poster child for the critics of NY state’s controversial bail reform, under which judges are prevented from setting cash bail on most misdemeanors and even on some felonies. In December, when the NY Metropolitan area was hit with dozens of anti-Semitic assaults, critics of the new bail law called for installing a hate crime exemption in it. Tiffany Harris, who was arrested three times for assaulting Orthodox Jewish women in Brooklyn in less than a week, and a homeless man who was charged with assault on Jewish victims, were both released without bail. One of the law’s biggest critic, Staten Island Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis, told Fox News that “there’s going to be blood on Governor Cuomo’s hands.”
Governor Cuomo, for his part, is on the record saying there are “consequences we have to adjust for” in the new bail law, which he promised to pursue in the coming legislative session.
Back in the court room Monday, Brooklyn ADA Peter Choi told Judge Danny Chun that he isn’t allowed to seek bail in Harris’s case, and could only warn the accused that should she fail to appear for the scheduled hearing of her case, a warrant could be issued for her arrest.