A rich advert inheritor who allegedly torched a Jewish man’s Israeli flag at a Columbia College protest pleaded not responsible in Manhattan court docket Monday — as his legal professional had a snarky retort to a query from the decide.
Decide Curtis J. Farber requested if James Carlson, 40, or protection lawyer Moira Meltzer-Cohen wish to make an announcement after getting into the plea on legal mischief and different costs.
“Not even a bit bit,” Meltzer-Cohen stated.
The personal legal protection legal professional makes a speciality of “authorized help and schooling for social motion teams working towards collective liberation … and different attorneys in search of to be taught extra concerning the substance and tradition of representing radicals,” in response to her agency’s web site.
Assistant District Legal professional Ryan Falk instructed the courtroom that prosecutors wouldn’t offer Carlson a deal and stated there was “in depth proof” and “in depth video surveillance” within the case towards him.
The skilled agitator and legal professional by commerce was then launched on his personal recognizance.
Carlson is accused of snatching the Israeli flag of a Jewish man from one other demonstrator at an April 20 protest — and started burning it with a lighter earlier than a witness pulled it away, court docket information present.
Carlson moreover participated in an April 30 incident the place he unlawfully entered the Ivy League college’s Hamilton Corridor and was charged with legal trespassing, court docket information present.
Whereas he was being processed by NYPD at 1 Police Plaza, Carlson allegedly kicked and broke a glass panel in a holding cell, the indictment stated.
He pleaded not responsible to costs within the incident, in response to court docket information.
“This defendant’s alleged exercise went past authorized and peaceable protest. Committing arson in a crowded protest endangers the protection of others, and one of these conduct is not going to be tolerated” stated District Legal professional Alvin Bragg in a press assertion.
“We are going to proceed to work intently with the NYPD and native schools and universities to make sure the protection of scholars, workers, and group members throughout any protest or demonstration,” Bragg stated.
Carlson has no recognized hyperlinks to Columbia, in response to the indictment.
He was additionally among the many anti-Israel protesters in January who wreaked havoc on the town by blocking visitors on the Holland Tunnel in addition to the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges in a “Shut it Down for Palestine” rally, a supply beforehand stated.
His rap sheet dates again to not less than 2005, when he was charged in San Francisco for taking part within the violent “West Coast Anti-Capitalist Mobilization and March In opposition to the G8,” the place protesters cracked a police officer’s cranium, practically killing him, and tried to set a police cruiser ablaze, in response to a Metropolis Corridor supply and information reviews.
Carlson was charged on the time with suspicion of tried lynching, malicious mischief, battery to a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a lethal weapon and willful resistance to a police officer that ends in severe bodily damage, in response to the supply.
The fees have been dropped in 2007, CNN reported.
He’s the inheritor of the deceased promoting exec Richard “Dick” Tarlow and his spouse, Sandy Carlson Tarlow, generally known as the “public face of Ralph Lauren,” who left behind tens of tens of millions of their property.
Carlson, who has a baby with mannequin Kim Heyrman, purchased a 2,893-square-foot, three-story townhouse with 4 wood-burning fireplaces and a carriage home in Park Slope in 2019 for $2.3 million, in response to property information and on-line listings.
He’s among the many few nonetheless being charged in reference to anti-Israel protests at each Columbia and Metropolis Faculty. Though practically 300 individuals have been arrested throughout protests, the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace dismissed most of them in June.
Carlson is due again in court docket on Dec. 9.
