Michael Jaccarino (David McGlynn)
A contrite Brooklyn prosecutor has taken a no-jail guilty plea today to drunkenly assaulting a female EMT worker in a moving ambulance last fall, telling a judge that he feels, “absolutely horrible and devastated,” but remembers nothing of the booze-drenched assault.
Some two-dozen uniformed emergency workers — angered over what they perceived as a wrist-slap disposition — watched in Manhattan Criminal Court this morning as Assistant District Attorney Michael Jaccarino told a judge that as a public servant, he could never have intentionally harmed an EMT.
“I have no memory of that night… no memory of being in the ambulance,” Jaccarino, 30, told a judge as he took his plea, which his lawyer said will result in his being fired from the Brooklyn DA’s office.
“That’s what makes this so difficult,” he told Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Melissa Crane, who ordered he serve 10 days community service and complete an alcohol program over the next six months.
“That being said,” Jaccarino continued, “I am accepting full responsibility…It’s not going to happen again.”
He added, “I feel absolutely horrible and devastated by what happened.”
The victim — Teresa Soler, 46, of Yonkers — had told cops that Jaccarino was so violent that night, as he was picked up stumbling drunk on the Brooklyn Bridge, that she thought she was going to die as he jammed his forearm into her throat as he tried to escape from the moving ambulance.
Emergency workers had hoped for felony charges, none less so than Soler herself, who said the assault will have a lasting effect on EMTs’ confidence in the judicial system’s ability to protect them as they treat belligerent drunks in the future.
She also didn’t buy Jaccarino’s courtroom display of remorse.
“I’m not buying it. It didn’t look sincere; it didn’t sound sincere…He’s been an upright citizen 20 years? So have I. Where is my justice?”
Jaccarino is an embarrassment to the judicial system, she said after court.
But prosecutors said the no-jail, misdemeanor disposition was arrived at after a lengthy, detailed investigation — involving interviews with police witnesses, the victim’s partner, the victim herself and bartenders who had served Jaccarino that night.
“Our investigation has shown that while in the moving ambulance, the defendant unbuckled himself and shoved the victim, held her down with his forearm pressed against her neck, struck her in the face and choked her around her neck, causing injuries,” Manhattan assistant district attorney Sherita Walton told the judge.
“Our investigation also revealed that the defendant was intoxicated to such an extent that it would be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he acted intentionally, which is required to sustain the instant felony charge,” she said.
“He was found stumbling on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the cars, and not on the pedestrian walkway,” she said.
“There was an odor of alcohol coming from him. He had debris on his clothing that indicated to officers that he had fallen, or lain down on the bridge earlier… he left an unintelligible voicemail during transport before the assault,” the prosecutor told the judge.
“Intoxication may be a defense to intentional behavior, but it is not a defense to reckless behavior,” she explained of the decision to charge Jaccarino with a misdemeanor.
Prosecutors took into account Jaccarino’s clean previous record, she said.
Some 35 friends and acquaintances — including an elementary school teacher — submitted letters on Jaccarino’s behalf, his lawyer, Gary Farrell, told the judge.
“The medical records at Beth Israel say he was in a state of delirium,” Jaccarino’s lawyer said, adding that his client is living “an alcohol-free life” now, and has been volunteering helping rebuild homes for Hurricane Sandy victims while on unpaid suspension from the Brooklyn DA’s office.
“He is paying the price… He is no longer going to be an assistant district attorney, I can assure everyone in this courtroom of that.”
“He drank way too much,” the lawyer said. “And he is more sorry for his actions than any words of mine can ever express.”