A homeless ex-con charged with shoving an NYU pupil and a Massive Apple vacationer in separate unprovoked assaults was much more unhinged in entrance of a Manhattan choose.
James Rizzo, 45, rolled his eyes, snarled, growled, and at instances appeared to enter a zombie-like trance Wednesday in entrance of Decide Cori Weston, as he appeared in courtroom on a slew of prices.
“Not responsible!” Rizzo yelled in a gravely tone when requested how he pled to the 2 indictments.
The violent vagrant — who was ordered held with out bail — made headlines when he allegedly randomly attacked NYU pupil Amelia Lewis, 20, as she walked to class on Broadway round 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 2.
Stunning video footage of the incident exhibits Lewis, an aspiring mannequin, strolling down the road when the goon comes up behind, smacks her butt and knocks her to the bottom earlier than strolling off.
“As I’m strolling, like with my headphones on listening to music, I really feel one thing slap me so onerous, like actually on my ass,” Lewis, 20, stated in a tearful TikTok publish following the assault.
“And I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, oh that hurts so dangerous!’ I assumed it was like one in all my buddies. I used to be gonna flip round and be like, ‘Oh, that damage so dangerous, why did you do this?’
“However after I rotated, I noticed this outdated white man. And like proper after I rotated, he grabs my f—ing hair like this and like yanks me and like threw me to the bottom. My headphones went f–ing flying,” Lewis sobbed.
“And I used to be like on the bottom and I noticed him simply bolt away down Waverly. And I used to be like, ‘Holy s–t? What the f–ok simply occurred?’”
Authorities stated that wasn’t the one incident Rizzo is charged in — he allegedly shoved a 68-year-old lady as she walked on Fifth Avenue close to West forty seventh Road round 8:45 p.m. in an unprovoked Thanksgiving Day assault.
“I used to be a couple of step or two behind her and out of nowhere this man seems in my face and begins speaking loopy discuss, like, ‘Our complete society is a f—ing joke, proper?’” Jana Dianne Brazell, a retired faculty professor from Texas who was visiting her sister-in-law within the Massive Apple advised The Put up.
“He stepped again,” she stated. “I assumed, thank goodness he’s transferring away. The subsequent factor I do know, I’m flying within the air and I hit this glass wall in conjunction with a constructing. I simply slid down.
“This complete encounter with him was like six seconds,” she stated. “It was so quick.”
Rizzo has 16 prior busts, together with for sexual abuse and forcible touching.
He was launched from state jail in September after being sentenced to 2 years behind bars on a persistent sexual abuse conviction, on-line correction data present.
In courtroom Wednesday, he wore a brown jacket, leg and wrist shackles and an extended, greasy pony tail.
Manhattan Assistant District Legal professional Kailey Wilk advised the choose that Rizzo faces as much as seven years in jail on essentially the most severe cost — and nonetheless faces further housebreaking and assault prices.
