Amid Backlash, Manhattan DA Drops Charges Against Bodega Worker

George Soros boosted District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his campaign for office

Josh Christenson • July 19, 2022 12:31 pm

Facing criticism from across the political spectrum, a Manhattan district attorney boosted in his campaign for office by George Soros has moved to drop murder charges against a bodega worker caught on camera defending himself from a violent assault.

The office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D.) filed a motion to drop the second-degree murder case against Jose Alba, a middle-aged employee who used a knife to subdue an assailant assaulting him at work, according to the New York Post. The Manhattan prosecutor’s office said it could not prove Alba had been unjustified in his use of deadly force after his more physically imposing attacker lunged behind the counter, threw him against a wall, and grabbed him by the collar, the motion states. Bragg had initially set Alba’s bond at $250,000, an unprecedented move for an office that has largely abandoned cash bail. New York City mayor Eric Adams had opposed the charges, saying Alba acted in self-defense and was “following the law.”

The motion is one of the only times Bragg has reversed course under pressure. In June, the mother of a murdered Army veteran castigated a Bragg attorney in court to no avail after the prosecutor sentenced her son’s killer to just seven years in prison. Bragg has evaded accountability for many other assault cases, even amid public outcry.

Soros in 2021 donated more than $1 million to Bragg’s campaign, helping to elect the Harlem native as part of decade-long push to install liberal prosecutors across the country. The progressive megadonor has spent more than $40 million to place dozens of left-wing prosecutors in half of America’s largest jurisdictions, a June Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund report found, ousting many career prosecutors in the process.