The investment banker, accused of stiffing a New York cabbie and then stabbing him in a potential hate crime, pleaded not guilty in a Connecticut courtroom this morning.
William Bryan Jennings, a Morgan Stanley bigwig who earns $2 million a year, didn’t say a word as defense lawyer Eugene Riccio raced to the defense bar, entered the not guilty plea and set his client’s next court date for April 12.
Jennings, sporting a misplaced smirk on his mug throughout this morning’s appearance, and Riccio then briskly walked to the lawyer’s blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and roared out of the Stamford court facility without making further comment.
He’s free on bail on charges of second-degree assault, theft of services and second-degree intimidation based on race or bigotry for his wild Dec. 22 ride from the Westside of Manhattan to the money man’s home in Darien.
An allegedly drunk Jennings, 45, refused to pay the cabbie, a Queens man of Middle Eastern descent, $204 for the long ride, authorities said.
Jennings offered just $50 before pulling a pen knife and allegedly stabbing the terrified driver, according to the victim.
“I felt like a I was going to die that night,” the 44-year-old cabbie told Darien cops. “He tried to stab me in the neck.”
During the attack, Jennings allegedly screamed: “I’m going to kill you, you should go back to your own country!”
Jennings claims he was acting in self-defense and feared he was being kidnapped.
The high-powered money man has told cops that “he’d been drinking throughout the day” at a Morgan Stanley charity auction “but didn’t feel he was highly intoxicated,” according to court records.
With David K. Li in New York