Accused West Village Attacker Rearrested Hours After Freed Under Bail Reform

From CBS New York:

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A man accused of knocking out a stranger's teeth in an attack outside a West Village subway was released under the state's new bail laws – and arrested again just hours later, CBS2 reports.

Eugene Webb, 26, was re-arrested Friday and arraigned late Saturday night after three separate incidents on New York City Streets.

Questions about the new bail reform laws were being raised after he was released following the first two incidents, both of them violent and one leaving the woman with missing teeth.

“Once I crossed McDougal I got pushed from the side and then attacked again and I was punched in the head,” said the 23-year-old victim who police say was assaulted by Webb as she walked to a workout class on Wednesday morning.

“I tried to start running away and then while that happened I was pushed to the ground… then I was screaming for help and trying to say ‘Stop.'”

Eugene Webb (Credit: CBS2)

Later that day, police said the same man attacked a 35-year-old woman by Grand Central Terminal, shoving her to the ground and kicking her in the back of the head. He was arrested for those two attacks Thursday but released after his arraignment Friday under new new bail reform laws that went into effect this month.

Mere hours later he was arrested again for aggressive panhandling just feet from the scene of his first attack. Police found a glass pipe in his possession containing what investigators believed to be K2.

“Justice was never supposed to be who has money in their pocket and who doesn’t,” Cuomo said last week in support of the bail reform

Cuomo has acknowledged the law is not foolproof.

“There’s no doubt this is still a work in progress and there are other changes that have to be made,” Cuomo said.

On Sunday, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton became the latest critic to slam the new laws.

“It’s a mess. It’s more than a mess — it’s a disgrace in terms of what they put forth. As the public learns more about it, as the public is affected more by the negative aspects of it, I think the outrage will build and hopefully they will reform the reforms,” Bratton said during a radio interview.

Webb was not released after his most recent arrest. Instead, a judge decided to send him to the hospital for evaluation.