A New York City judge has tossed out a summons against Alex O’Keefe, a former writer for the acclaimed TV series The Bear, who was handcuffed and escorted off a train last month following complaints about his seating position.
O’Keefe, who has also worked as a speechwriter for prominent politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, was handcuffed and escorted off a Metro-North train by police last month. O’Keefe, who is Black, says he was targeted after a white passenger complained about him.
O’Keefe was issued a summons for disorderly conduct following the incident. The summons was thrown out by a judge on Tuesday, which is a common outcome for these types of alleged violations, the Associated Press reports. O’Keefe also shared an Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon confirming a judge at the Bronx Criminal Court “dismissed all charges against me, ruling they were ‘facially insufficient.’”
“That means the state failed to present basic facts showing any crime was committed,” O’Keefe wrote on Instagram. “Sitting is not illegal.”
Video of the September 18 incident went viral after O’Keefe shared it on Instagram.
O’Keefe’s footage shows Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officers placing handcuffs on his wrists as he points to an elderly woman and says, “You’re going to arrest the one Black dude on the train because this white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train.”
“You called the police, you called the police to arrest the one Black dude on the train,” he continued. “I haven’t done anything illegal.”
“Lets go,” an officer said in response.
After handcuffing him, the officers removed O’Keefe from the train. Once they were outside, a second video that appears to have been taken by another person shows O’Keefe facing a wall while speaking with officers. At one point, O’Keefe can be heard saying: “They just saw the Black guy and they arrested me.”
O’Keefe’s Instagram video has received more than two thousand comments and hundreds of reposts.
“An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting. I refused so she went to the conductor and complained,” he wrote on Instagram. “The conductor called the police and stopped the train. While waiting for the police to arrive, the old Karen’s friend said ‘You’re not the minority anymore.’”
The MTA Police Department told The Independent officers were responding to a “report of a disorderly passenger,” and that the conductor “reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats.”
The officers’ investigation, as well as their body-worn cameras and on-board security footage, showed he had “both legs stretched across an adjacent seat,” the agency said. Officers boarded the train and asked O’Keefe to exit, but police say he “refused.”
“When he continued to refuse to exit, delaying service for several hundred other riders for six minutes, the passenger involved was handcuffed and removed from the train, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, a violation, without further incident at approximately 1048 hours, and allowed to board the next train to complete his trip,” the police department said.
The agency noted O’Keefe was never placed under arrest.
O’Keefe’s wife, Aracely Jimenez, launched a GoFundMe to cover his legal expenses. The incident occurred just days after their wedding, she said. More than 200 people had donated a total of $11,531 as of Wednesday afternoon.
“This experience has been confusing, painful and traumatizing for our family,”Jimenez wrote on the GoFundMe page.
The Independent has contacted O’Keefe’s attorneys for comment.
