These are the worst — and wokest — judges in New York City when it comes to protecting the public from violent suspects.
These criminal court jurists set violent offenders loose ahead of trial at an astounding rate — with some springing alleged perps more than 80% of the time, according to a Post analysis of pretrial detention data from the Office of Court Administration.
The analysis looked at 96 judges who handled a minimum of 25 cases in the first six months of 2024 where the top charge at arraignment was a violent felony. Nearly all such cases are still bail-eligible, even after radical criminal-justice reforms were enacted by Albany lawmakers in 2019.
One of the city’s most egregious practitioners of this junk justice is Queens Criminal Court Judge Wanda Licitra, who only set bail five times and had no suspects held in pretrial detention in 34 violent felony cases spanning January to June 2024, the latest available data.
Licitra even set loose a feces fiend accused of smashing poop into a straphanger’s face on a subway platform — who cursed her out in court to boot.
“Judges like that, we call them judges who drink the Kool Aid, because instead of them focusing on the actual situation, they’re drinking the Kool Aid of bail reform,” one veteran criminal defense attorney who has repeatedly gone before Licitra told The Post.
Such jurists’ “broad ideological slide” toward opposing incarceration is endangering New Yorkers’ lives, said Hannah E. Meyers, a fellow and director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute.
Many of these judges are “letting out dangerous people even when they know those people are dangerous and they’re failing to be responsible in those situations and safety of others,” she said.
Judges have bemoaned their hands are tied when deciding to set bail, citing how New York is the only state where jurists only can weigh whether a person will return to court, with zero consideration for whether they’re a public safety threat.
Yet criminal defense attorney Thomas Keniff, who ran as a Republican against Alvin Bragg for Manhattan district attorney, stressed there are “many” ways to justify holding a violent perp on bail.
“Even when you can’t rely on the public safety criteria because of the dysfunctional laws in the state [to set bail], chances are you can get there some other way.”
An OCA spokesperson said the administration does not comment on bail decisions, but said judges “have discretion in making bail decisions in accordance with the law and based solely on an individualized assessment of a defendant’s risk of flight.”
None of the following judges responded to requests for comment.
Judge Wanda Licitra, 65
Queens Criminal Court
Freed 29 out of 34 accused violent felons, 85%
Appointed by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021, she has gained notoriety among prosecutors and defense attorneys alike for springing violent accused criminals.
Last year, the ex-Legal Aid Society attorney cut loose at least two perps charged with first-degree assault with a weapon and second-degree robbery resulting in physical injury, respectively, without bail — only for the pair to be rearrested for violent felonies, according to OCA’s pretrial data.
“She’s letting them all out,” one longtime defense attorney said.
In February 2022, Licitra caused a stink when she released Frank Abrokwa, 37, who was accused of assaulting a woman on the subway by pushing poo into the victim’s face.
Even though Abrokwa snarled at Licitra, “F–k you, bitch” in her courtroom, Licitra let him go during an early proceeding.
By September 2022, she also ordered the release of a 56-year-old man who was being held on Rikers Island due to his inability to pay a $500 bail, citing the jail’s violent conditions. The man, who had bail set for allegedly violating an order of protection, had open cases for drunk driving and assault, according to New York Focus.
Judge Valentina Morales, 46
Manhattan Criminal Court
Freed without bail a migrant who allegedly slashed a man in 2023
Another de Blasio appointee, Morales has been nicknamed “Judge Let-em-go” among law enforcement officials for her notorious leniency.
Between January and June 2024, Morales let 83 alleged violent felons out of 101 walk without bail, including recidivist vagrant Eric Taylor, who already had been convicted on two felony charges and nearly two dozen misdemeanors.
Taylor had been charged with bail-eligible felony assault for allegedly throwing a shopping bag filled with heavy objects at a 24-year-old woman walking to work in Union Square in January 2024, leaving her with a black eye, a cut above her eyebrow, and a concussion.
Morales also previously set Venezuelan migrant Walter Almachi Leal free without bail in October 2023 after he allegedly slashed a man’s arm with a broken beer bottle in Times Square. The alleged victim needed 20 stitches for his injuries.
“You take the oath as a judge to protect and serve,” one cop with nearly 20 years said. “Clearly she’s not when it comes to criminals.”
Judge Robert Rosenthal, 63
Manhattan Criminal Court
Sprung violent robber who went on sexual assault spree the next day
Elected to Manhattan Civil Court in 2019 but assigned to criminal court, Rosenthal let perps go without bail in the first half of 2024 a staggering 67% of the time.
Then, in January, the onetime de Blasio appointee made headlines after he cut loose on supervised release Jason Ayala, who had been charged with violent robbery charges.
The very next day, Ayala, 37, allegedly went on a twisted sexual assault rampage, abusing a 12-year-old and 14-year-old as well as three women in the span of 30 minutes. The case is still pending.
“All of the arrests were for forcibly touching intimate parts and endangerment. He shouldn’t have been out on our streets the next day doing that,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told The Post at the time.
The mother of the 14-year-old victim was outraged by Rosenthal’s record: “It’s concerning because it doesn’t seem like the judge is for the innocent people — he’s for the person doing the crime,” she said.
Judge Marva Brown, 43
Manhattan Criminal Court
Freed 54 out of 87 accused violent felons, 62%
Brown has only been on the bench for 14 months, but in that short tenure has sprung at least 54 violent maniacs – a number of whom have reoffended.
The ex-Legal Aid attorney, was elected to Brooklyn Civil Court in November 2023 but has overseen Manhattan criminal cases, infamously let loose Amira Hunter without bail after she was caught on camera bashing a subway cellist over the head with a metal water bottle in February 2024.
Weeks later, Hunter was nabbed for allegedly shoplifting at Nordstrom in midtown.
Earlier this year, she also sprang a subway nutter on a bail-eligible sexual abuse charge — only for the psycho to allegedly push an unsuspecting rider into a moving train at a Washington Heights station.
“You don’t have to be a criminal justice expert to know that setting violent recidivist criminals loose on our streets puts New Yorkers in real danger,” MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber previously told The Post.
Judge Eugene Bowen, 49
Bronx Criminal Court
Sprung alleged gun-toting migrant squatter without bail
Bowen, who was elected to Manhattan Civil Court in 2022 but is now assigned to Bronx criminal cases, sparked outrage in 2023 when he released two men who allegedly bashed a cop after the officer asked them to put out their cigarettes at a subway station — despite prosecutors asking for $10,000 cash bail.
Bowen continued to cut accused violent felons loose in a staggering 87 out of 113 cases he oversaw between January and June 2024.
In April 2024, the jurist let go on supervised release an accused gun-toting migrant, Hector Desousa-Villalta, who was one of six busted for allegedly squatting and dealing drugs out of a Norwood multifamily home.
Desousa-Villalta had an open case linked to August 2023, when he allegedly shot a fellow migrant during an argument over a woman in Yonkers, police officials said.
Bowen also let two other migrants walk without any restrictions ahead of their trial, one of whom was previously arrested in September 2023 and indicted for possession of a loaded firearm, police officials said.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
