NEW YORK (Aiexpress) — The former US Marine who was acquitted last month of criminal charges in the killing of a man on a New York City subway train is attempting to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the victim’s father.
Daniel Penny’s lawyer said in a court filing Monday that his client denies the lawsuit’s accusations that the 26-year-old is liable for civil damages for employing a chokehold on Jordan Neely when Neely was shouting and acting erratically on a crowded train on May 1, 2023.
Andre Zachery, in a suit filed last month before a jury exonerated Penny in the criminal trial, accused the Long Island native of carelessness, assault, and abuse for putting his 30-year-old son in a chokehold for nearly six minutes, resulting in his son’s death.
However, in his legal brief, Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser stated that “all injuries or damages” were caused by Neely’s “culpable conduct, negligence, carelessness, and lack of care.”
Raiser stated in a statement that Penny is innocent and that his acquittal “underscored New Yorkers’ belief in their right to defend themselves and their neighbors from random violence.”
“We are committed to defending this ill-conceived civil action brought by Jordan Neely’s estranged father with same the vigor with which we defended the criminal case,” the attorney general said.
Zachery’s lawyers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday, but they have previously stated that civil court cases have a lesser standard of proof than criminal prosecutions.
Zachery seeks unspecified damages in his lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court.
The case aroused national controversy, with some hailing Penny as a hero who controlled a dangerous man and others seeing him as a white vigilante who choked a Black man to death.
A Manhattan jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide. A more serious manslaughter allegation was dropped after the jury deadlocked on that count.
Penny, who spent four years in the Marines before going on to study architecture, did not testify in his own defense. However, in an interview following the verdict, he stated that despite being in a “very vulnerable position” during the encounter with Neely, he felt forced to act.
