NYC judge has another teen he went easy on re-arrested
By Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
New York Post
November 14, 2021
Darryl Burnett was freed after Supreme Court Justice Dennis Boyle lowered his bail
A Bronx judge with a history of dumping suspected violent criminals back on the street saw his kid-glove bail stance backfire again last week — when a teen charged with nearly killing an 80-year-old veteran was back behind bars after being busted with a loaded gun.
Darryl Burnett, 17, was originally arrested in June on an attempted murder charge in the May 17 stray bullet shooting that wounded Marine Corps vet Andres Rodriguez — but was freed when acting Supreme Court Justice Dennis Boyle lowered his bail.
On Thursday, cops arrested Burnett again with a loaded .38-caliber handgun — just one day after prosecutors told Boyle at a hearing that the teen was flunking his alternative-to-jail program and belonged in jail.
“This kid is the poster child of a failed system that purports to protect kids,” one law enforcement source told The Post. “He shoots a senior citizen walking from a store, only to be let out, and goes right back to carrying a loaded gun.”
“It’s supposed to be an alternative to jail, not the Make-A-Wish foundation,” he said.
Rodriguez had just left a Target store in East Morrisania around 4:45 p.m. on May 17, when he was hit in the buttocks by a stray bullet, according to police.
He told cops he felt “a stabbing sensation” in his legs and became dizzy.
“He grabbed his chest,” his son, Micheal Rodriguez, told The Post at the time, adding that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s. “He started falling back and then hit the floor.”
“This area is hot,” he said of the neighborhood. “It’s always been. It feels out of control.”
The victim’s wife said Sunday that he is doing better but declined further comment.
Cops said they found three 9 mm shell casings from the scene and said the shooting was captured on surveillance video from down the block — which shows the shooter chasing a passing vehicle to the corner of East 174th Street and Vyse Avenue.
Darryl Burnett was originally arrested in June on an attempted murder charge
A woman who called 911 after the incident told police the gunman got into an argument with the occupants of the car then opened fire, with one shot hitting Rodriguez.
Burnett was identified as the alleged shooter and arrested on June 10.
He was originally held on $100,000 cash or a $200,000 bond in the case, but Boyle lowered the amount to $50,000 cash or bond, which allowed the teen to make bail.
He is being held on $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond on the new gun charge.
The teenager is charged with felony gun possession in the new case, including possession of a loaded gun near a school, having a defaced weapon, both felonies.
Burnett’s release and new arrest come on the heels of another ruling by Boyle to free a troubled teen back onto the streets, which had fatal consequences.
In May, the judge allowed reputed gang member Steven Mendez, 17, to be freed on probation as part of a guilty plea for his role in an October 2020 armed robbery and shooting — despite prosecutors asking for up to four years in prison for the teen.
Darryl Burnett was originally held on $100,000 cash or a $200,000 bond
Last month, Mendez gunned down 21-year-old college student Saikou Koma after allegedly mistaking him for a gang rival, police said.
Mendez’s record already included a 2019 bust for allegedly slapping his mother and pulling a gun on her for not giving him money, sources said.
State court officials defended Boyle, saying the jurist uses his discretion.
“Judge Boyle is particularly involved in his case management and how defendants are in compliance with agreements made as a case progresses,” Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, said in an email.
“However, no Judge is Nostradamus,” he said. “Cherry-picking one or two or five cases out of many hundreds that he had presided over does a disservice to all involved.”
The Big Apple has been immersed in a debate over changes in the criminal justice system since a state bail reform overhaul took effect in January 2020.
The move barred judges from setting bail for defendants charged with misdemeanors and most non-violent or lesser felonies, with critics claiming repeat offenders are now allowed back on the streets to commit new crimes — even as activists decry overcrowding and dangerous conditions at Riker’s Island.
Boyle has been at the center of several controversial decisions tied to the feud.
The 67-year-old judge also made headlines in June when he lowered the bail on a 16-year old gang member who returned to the streets and allegedly killed a 34-year-old father of two.
In that case, Alberto Ramirez was being held on $75,000 bail on a gun charge when Boyle reduced the among to $10,000, which the suspect’s family was able to pay.
Once freed, police said Ramirez fired into a crowd and struck Eric Velasquez.
Last year, Boyle also released Jordon Benjamin, 16, despite a manslaughter charge, leaving him free to allegedly slash a young woman — only to have Boyle release the teen again in that case.
And as far back as 1999, Boyle allowed a homeless man charged in a sexual assault to be returned to a shelter — before he went on a rash of Upper East Side sex attacks.
A longtime jurist, Boyle is a graduate of Fordham University and Fordham Law School, and began his legal career as a law clerk in city criminal court in 1978, according to a profile of the judge in the New York Law Journal.
In 1991, former Big Apple Mayor David Dinkins named him to the bench in city court, a post he held until 2002 when then-Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman named him an acting Supreme Court Justice in the Bronx.
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