The judge summons the writer of “The Bear” after the train accident
Writer Alex O’Keefe, who was arrested by police last month in a viral dispute over seating on a New York City train, is out on charges for alleged disorderly conduct.
A New York City administrative judge denied a civil summons against O’Keefe, the former “Bear” writer, ending her case against him. O’Keefe informed him Instagram He continued that “the charges against me were dropped” and “the judge deemed them prima facie insufficient.”
“This is legal for [‘BS’]”They never had anything against me…they were trying to make an example of me,” O’Keefe says in the video as he stands outside the courtroom.
O’Keefe’s attorney, Lindsay Lewis, said in a statement Wednesday that the writer’s legal team “commends the court for reaching the only fair and correct outcome based on the law — a complete dismissal of the case.”
Last month, O’Keefe uploaded videos of the September 18 incident to Instagram. He documented New York’s MTA police putting him in handcuffs for alleged disorderly conduct. In the comment on his post, the letter’s author – who is black – claimed that officials arrested him on a train after an “old white woman” complained about the way he was sitting. He claimed the woman objected to “one black person on the train.”
The MTA Police Department confirmed that it responded to a “report of a disorderly rider” at the Fordham North subway station in the Bronx. One of the conductors reported that a 31-year-old passenger was occupying two seats and “refused to lift his feet from one of the seats.”
Police accused O’Keefe of crossing his legs on a nearby seat, violating the railway’s rules. They also accused him of refusing police directions to exit the train to the platform and board the next train. Police alleged that O’Keefe delayed service “for several hundred other passengers for six minutes”, and was handcuffed and removed from the train.
In his Instagram post about the incident, O’Keefe claimed that the boyfriend of the woman who berated the way he was sitting told him: “You’re not in the minority anymore.” He added that the police “arrested him” without “even speaking to Karen who reported the black person on the train” and that only other black passengers recorded the conflict.
Police refuted this and said that O’Keefe “was not arrested at any time” during the incident.
O’Keefe doubled down on his previous denials of wrongdoing in a joint statement on Tuesday, writing: “I have been harassed and detained for sitting while black.
He added: “Today, the court made a clear ruling: I did nothing illegal on September 18. Like millions of New Yorkers, I was going to work to earn a living and provide for my family.” “Even though this ridiculous case was dismissed today, I will continue to stand up for the civil rights of every New Yorker. Every worker has the right to safe transportation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.