Charges Against Daniel Penny and George Santos

No, I’m not trying to make any connection between these two —sorry for the inelegant headline, but it’s been that kind of a week! I’ve been reporting on a few big story lines with more coming soon. But over the last seven days …

DANIEL PENNY CHARGED: The Marine Corps veteran who placed Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a New York City subway was charged Friday with second-degree manslaughter and released from custody after a judge set bail at $100,000.

My colleague Jim Fanelli and I wrote about the charges in The Wall Street Journal, which come almost two weeks after Daniel Penny restrained Neely on an F train traveling through lower Manhattan.

Penny’s lawyers have said he acted to protect himself and other passengers on May 1 when Neely began acting erratically. Neely was threatening and scaring passengers in a subway car when Penny placed him in a chokehold, the prosecutor said Friday. Penny held Neely in the chokehold for several minutes—even after the train reached the next subway station, prosecutors said.

In the moments leading up to the altercation, Neely said he was hungry and thirsty and ready to die, according to a witness account posted on Facebook. Neely took off his jacket and aggressively threw it to the floor.

A Michael Jackson impersonator, Neely had a long record of mental illness, officials said, and pleaded guilty in February to assaulting a 67-year-old woman in 2021. Neely was placed into a treatment program, but a warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to appear in court.

The case has struck a chord with New Yorkers concerned about public safety and how mentally ill people are treated. Some progressive officials—including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—called his death a murder. Other people have raised money for Penny’s legal defense.

GEORGE SANTOS INDICTED: Rep. George Santos, the Long Island Republican who lied about his biography during his 2022 campaign for Congress, was indicted Wednesday on charges that he embezzled contributions, fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits and filed false federal disclosure forms.

I’ve previously reported on the political fallout from Santos’s fabulism, his lackluster campaign fund-raising and his early days in Congress. Cory Ramey and Jim Fanelli wrote up the actual charges this week, and our WSJ colleague Luciana Magalhaes reported that Santos reached an agreement Thursday with Brazilian authorities to settle criminal charges that he committed fraud when he was 19 years old.

I got to talk about Santos on The Journal podcast, which was a ton of fun. Host Kate Linebaugh and I tracked the story from the beginning, and tried to find larger meaning for our political system. See if you catch my literary reference. Click here to listen!

THE QUESTION: Who was the last person in New York’s congressional delegation who left office with a felony conviction?

Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi. And Happy Mothers Day!

THE LAST ANSWER: Only two of you were brave enough to actually tell me about your marijuana-buying habits. I guess the people who read this are a bunch of squares!