Metro

Suspect who fled cuffs, cops arraigned

The wily drug suspect who wriggled out ​of ​his handcuffs and escaped in a police van Monday was “swerving back and forth” trying to knock a detective off the van as he dragged the determined cop a full block, Queens prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

Bryan McMenamin, 38, was held without bail at his Queens criminal court arraignment Wednesday ​on assault and escape charges.

Bryan McMenamin

“It is unclear how, but the defendant managed to get in the front of the vehicle,” Queens assistant district attorney Frank Longobardi said in court.

“He managed to get in the driver’s seat, start the vehicle and drove off in the vehicle,” Longobardi said, adding that the detective tried to grab the driver’s side door but McMenamin put the van in reverse and was “swerving back and forth” before he got away.

When McMenamin was busted a day later hiding out in a Lower East Side apartment, he told cops, “I flipped out,” prosecutors said.

McMenamin was first pulled over for turning without signaling and he gave cops a forged driver’s license, his criminal complaint states.

Inside the car McMenamin was driving cops found a knife, a machete, a pellet gun, and nine envelopes of heroin – which were placed inside the van McMenamin used to make good his escape, the court papers state.

The detective McMenamin dragged had the skin on one leg scraped off and may have suffered a torn ligament, court papers state.

McMenamin didn’t speak in court. Court staff took no chances with the cunning crook – his ankles were shackled during his brief appearance.