The lawyer for New York Metropolis’s sucker punch assault suspect alleged at a listening to Tuesday that his consumer’s been subjected to “character assassination” by the media, because the brother of the sufferer left in a coma following the unprovoked beating from the intercourse offender parolee sobbed within the courtroom. 

Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old homeless convicted intercourse offender, was led into the Bronx courtroom in handcuffs, the place the defendant stored his head down. 

The Vietnamese immigrant, reportedly a member of a road gang, was arrested for the brutal Aug. 12 Bronx assault on 52-year-old Jesus Cortes. 

The NYPD really useful an tried homicide cost, however Bronx District Legal professional Darcel Clark’s downgraded the fees, and Bui was launched on no bail underneath the state’s controversial bail reform legislation backed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

NYC SUCKER-PUNCH SUSPECT BACK AT RIKERS ISLAND AFTER RELEASE ON NO BAIL FOR DOWNGRADED ATTEMPTED MURDER 

Bui Van Phu seen on the left in his New York State Intercourse Offender Registry picture, and on the correct, in surveillance video of a sucker-punch knock out assault. 
(New York State Intercourse Offender Registry/NYPD)

Public outcry ensued over Bui’s launch, and Hochul intervened, resulting in the suspect being re-arrested for allegedly violating the phrases of his lifetime parole. He’s been held at Rikers Island since. Clark’s prosecutors made no indication Tuesday on whether or not they’ll improve the fees in opposition to Bui. 

A Sept. 15 date was set for doable arraignment if a grand jury returns an indictment. 

The choose ordered no communication between the defendant and Cortes, and his lawyer authorized support Casey Trimble instructed the courtroom there isn’t any curiosity and no try to take action of his consumer. 

Within the gallery was Cortes’ brother, who brazenly cried through the last minutes. He appeared straight on the defendant as he walked out, however Bui didn’t look again. The household didn’t wish to communicate to the press.

NYPD launched video of an Aug. 12 unprovoked assault that unfolded at roughly 10:45 p.m. in entrance of 163 E 188 St within the Bronx. 
(NYPD)

Trimble launched to the choose that “a number of articles” had been written about his consumer, citing points “utterly irrelevant to this felony case” and insisted that there was a “character assassination” of his consumer.

Video reveals Bui placing on work gloves on Aug. 12 earlier than approaching Cortes, a Mexican immigrant whom he by no means met, from behind exterior a restaurant and delivering a single blow to the again of his head, laying him out on the concrete. 

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Cortes suffered a cranium fracture, damaged cheek and mind bleeding. Bui was beforehand convicted of first-degree intercourse abuse within the Bronx in 1995 and was sentenced to 6 years to life in jail. 

He was paroled in 2019 and is now registered as a Degree 3 intercourse offender — probably the most severe designation — for sexually abusing a 17-year-old lady in 1994, based on state information.