A bodega clerk, the mother of a murder victim and an anti-crime activist will all testify at New York City’s high-profile Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday.
Republicans are bringing in at least three witnesses to talk about crime in the Big Apple to paint the story that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is more focused on chasing Donald Trump than on crime in his own backyard.
Jose Alba, a bodega employee who was initially charged with murder by Bragg’s office when he stabbed a man who attacked him with a bag of chips, will testify at the hearing.
So are Madeline Brame, president of the Victim Rights Council and the mother of a murder victim, and Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Rights NY.
Alba, 62, was arrested and sent to Rikers Island for stabbing Austin Simon after the 35-year-old burst into the Harlem bodega where he worked and assaulted him.
This was the altercation that led to Jose Alba’s arrest last Friday. Alba, 62, is shown in a blue striped shirt and hat. Austin Simon, right, arrived at the store to confront Alba who had refused to give his girlfriend a bag of chips
Alba was in the small shop when the man cornered him and demanded that he apologize to his girlfriend, who police say could not afford a bag of chips
He was initially charged with second-degree murder for the July 1 incident at Blue Moon Deli. But video footage showed Simon assaulting the deli employee before drawing the knife in what appeared to be self-defense.
Bragg’s office asked a judge to drop the charges on July 19 after he faced stiff backlash for going after Alba, including from Mayor Eric Adams.
The motion to dismiss said prosecutors “have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was unjustified in his use of deadly physical force.”
Surveillance footage clearly showed that Simon had moved behind the counter of the convenience store in Hamilton Heights and pushed the store clerk against a stack of shelves before grabbing hold of him.
Other videos obtained by DailyMail.com show Simon – who was on parole for assaulting a police officer when he died – marching behind the bodega counter to confront Alba when his girlfriend’s benefits card was declined when she tried to get a bag of chips to buy.
“Daddy, I don’t want a problem, Daddy,” Alba told him calmly before it got physical.
The hearing will take place Monday at 9 a.m. at the Javitz Federal Building. A number of Democrats are expected to attend, even as they paint the move as a “political stunt.”
Brame will also share her story with the committee. Her son, army veteran Hason Corea, was fatally stabbed in Harlem in 2018.
Correa, a 35-year-old married father of three, was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death by a group of assailants during an altercation outside an apartment building. Two of Correa’s assailants entered plea deals with Manhattan prosecutors and one was released on time.
The man who stabbed Correa was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Last summer, Brame sent letters to Bragg and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, saying Bragg’s office had not informed her it would offer the plea deal.
“You have violated my rights as a victim of a crime to be fully informed and heard,” Brame wrote in the letter.
“Why dismiss the murder charge against half the participants, when the murder and their roles are on video?”
The third witness, Harrison, is the head of Victims Rights NY, which is running its own ‘fire Alvin Bragg’ campaign. Harrison said her boyfriend and best friend were killed in a double homicide in which two of the attackers “went free” and the third was released in “just a few years.”
She has spoken out about withdrawing the state’s bail reform, which requires the release of all crimes and some suspected felons without cash bail.
Madeline Brame, above, will testify Monday at the NYC Judiciary Committee hearing. Her son was fatally stabbed in 2018
Hason Correa, a US Army veteran, was fatally stabbed in Harlem in 2018 and two of his assailants received a plea deal with a light conviction 10993537
Alba shows DailyMail.com the wounds he received in the attack
Republicans will bring their fight with Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg to New York City on Monday, where they will hold a field hearing with “victims” of the district attorney’s administration
Crime in New York City increased in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic (before Bragg took office) following a decade-long, largely downward trend. Serious crime rose about 22 percent by 2022 — with Bragg taking office on the first day of that year.
From April 2022 to April 2023, major crime remains about the same, although homicides, shootings, and burglaries have fallen.
The city was much safer even in 2022 than during a dangerous period in the 1980s and 1990s — murders and robberies were down 80 percent from 1990 by 2022, and rapes were down 50 percent.
The Judiciary Committee, along with Oversight and Administration, have launched an all-out political war against Bragg over the indictment, most recently with a subpoena for Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who formerly worked in Bragg’s office and wrote a book about the need to prosecute Trump.
On Tuesday, Bragg sued Jordan in an extraordinary effort to prevent him from interfering in Trump’s criminal case.
Jennifer Harrison is the head of Victims Rights NY, which is running its own ‘fire Alvin Bragg’ campaign
The lawsuit charged Jordan (R-Ohio) with a “brutal and unconstitutional attack” on Trump’s prosecution after the committee subpoenaed Bragg’s former employee, demanded documents and scheduled a field hearing in New York.
Lawyers for Bragg try to avoid Jordan’s subpoena from Pomerantz.
Pomerantz tried to convince the district attorney to prosecute Trump, but stopped when Bragg rejected his legal theories.
Bragg has declined to comply with requests for documents from chairmen of the three committees regarding Bragg’s communications with the Justice Department. Bragg has described the Republicans’ interference as improper interference in a criminal case.
The charges against Trump were revealed last week and include 34 counts of falsifying company records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and “catch and kill” payments through the National Enquirer to Playboy model Karen McDougal and a doorman who claimed a story about Trump’s alleged love child with a housekeeper.