A 22-year-old Mill Island man who was arrested at his girlfriend’s Mill Basin home earlier this month, has been cuffed once again on similar charges — breaking into automated teller machines.
Only this time, prosecutors say the suspect actually managed to get inside the cash machines and flee with some ill-gotten loot.
The defendant was arrested at his girlfriend’s E. 64th Street home near National Drive on Sept. 3, after cops allegedly spotted him and an accomplice unsuccessfully attempting to break into an automated teller machine on Kings Highway.
During the raid, his girlfriend and her mother were also arrested on charges of obstruction and resisting arrest, court documents show.
Now the suspect is facing additional counts of theft after investigators allegedly caught him breaking into cash machines on two other surveillance feeds — one near a pharmacy in Midwood on Aug. 24, and another outside a supermarket in Borough Park on Aug. 30.
Altogether, the Mill Island man is suspected of having absconded with more than $3,000, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, the man’s devoted girlfriend and her mother are preparing to fight back against the city and the NYPD, which they say violated their fourth amendment rights when they entered their home without a warrant, according to attorney Craig Trainor.
“The NYPD did violence to this constitutional principle on September 3, 2013, when its officers ‘barged’ into Debra Russo’s home without any legal justification whatsoever,” Trainor said in a written statement.
Trainor said that pictures taken at the event show police officers using unnecessary force against the unarmed women.
“What is more, these officers greatly exacerbated this constitutional abomination by applying plainly unreasonable and excessive force against the suspect’s girlfriend and her mother, and subsequently arresting them on baseless charges of resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration,” he said.
A police spokesman claimed that officers entered the house under exigent circumstances after someone reported that there was a barricaded person inside Russo’s home, and thus they did not require a warrant.
“On the day of the event there was a request for emergency service unit to search the premises for a barricaded perpetrator,” said the spokesman.
