You can’t arrest me — I am the law!
A boozed-up Brooklyn assistant district attorney was busted Thursday for allegedly refusing to pay cab fare — after telling cops that they couldn’t lock him up because he “outranked” them, sources said.
Blitzed barrister Imran Ansari was apparently heading to his home in Long Island City, Queens, at 10:19 p.m. when taxi driver Mohammad Hossain stopped his cab at 48th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard to let him out.
According to sources, the tipsy assistant DA refused to cough up the cab fare, telling Hossain: “I’m not going to pay you.”
The outraged hack drove with Ansari to the 108th Precinct station house, where he reported the ADA’s refusal to pay to police.
Cops told the drunk Ansari several times to produce the $21.50 fare, sources said.
But Ansari allegedly refused, and haughtily declared, “I’m a Brooklyn ADA and I outrank you,” a source said.
Police say Ansari admitted, “I have no money,” so they charged him with theft of services, a class-A misdemeanor. He’s set to be arraigned in four to six weeks.
“All he had to do was pay the 20 bucks. What a jerk,” said a law-enforcement source. “The one thing you don’t do when you’re a DA is tell people you’re a DA! That’s when you get in trouble.”
Ansari, a five-year veteran of the Brooklyn DA’s Office, was suspended after the bust, said Jerry Schmetterer, chief spokesman for the Brooklyn DA.
Ansari was assigned to work on cases originating in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, and Crown Heights.
When reached at his Long Island City home yesterday, Ansari refused to comment.
He’s the second Brooklyn ADA in a little less than two months to get busted for boozy hijinx.
On Nov. 9, at about 1 a.m., 30-year-old prosecutor Michael Jaccarino was hit with second-degree assault and other charges after an incident on the Brooklyn Bridge in which he allegedly pummeled an EMT.
Jaccarino was allegedly found drunk on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway after someone spotted him and called 911. Medics arrived and placed him in an ambulance. He allegedly tore out of an arm strap and punched and tried to strangle EMT Teresa Charry-Soler, 46.
Jaccarino has also been suspended and is facing termination if he is convicted.
Additional reporting by Josh Saul and Christina Carrega