Ex-con fails to show up for ankle bracelet after judge frees him without bail

A gentle-on-crime decide slice unfastened an ex-con billed with packing heat within a Bronx restaurant on the ailment that he get equipped with an ankle bracelet — which he instantly overlooked and is now free on the streets, The Submit has learned.

Bronx Criminal Court docket Decide Valentina Morales overruled a prosecution request to set bail for Frankie Centeno, 39, at $100,000 dollars or $300,000 bond just after he was busted all over 4:30 a.m. Sunday, a spokesperson for Bronx District Legal professional Darcel Clark said Tuesday.

Rather, Morales — a former community defender and nonprofit executive — purchased during Centeno’s arraignment Monday that he be subjected to electronic checking, irrespective of obtaining a heritage of violating probation and parole, the spokesperson explained.

Centeno, who’s served three jail phrases for gun possession and is on federal supervised release through September 2023, blew a noon Monday deadline to show up at the metropolis Sheriff’s Office environment for an ankle bracelet and is now becoming sought for arrest, regulation-enforcement resources reported.

Sources extra that federal prosecutors received an arrest warrant for Morales for violation of supervised launch.

1 legislation-enforcement formal familiar with the situation reported, “People were being shocked he was released, given his file.”

An additional supply stated that a cop’s system-worn digicam captured Centeno saying throughout his arrest, “You finished my life” and “Yo, bro, the feds really don’t enjoy.”

“Centeno realized that the federal judge in his very last circumstance — who he names on a system-worn digicam — explained to him that when she sentenced him…that his life was around if he came again again,” a resource acquainted with his arrest mentioned.

“So if that is not someone who has incentive to run, I don’t know who is.”

Morales was appointed by then-Mayor Monthly bill de Blasio in August 2021 and sparked controversy the following November when she refused a prosecution request to established bail at $20,000 dollars or $60,000 bond for a mentally sick homeless gentleman who was busted 3 times in just 36 hrs during an alleged theft and robbery spree.

Morales was the third decide to arraign Agustin Garcia, 63, who boasted to cops that he wouldn’t get locked up for the reason that “I have no record” — and she proved him ideal by sending him to Bellevue Healthcare facility for a psychiatric exam with out any bail.

Centeno has 4 prior gun-possession convictions that day to 2003, according to courtroom information.

The most the latest was in 2018, when he pleaded responsible in Manhattan federal court docket to currently being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of an unregistered firearm, stemming from his arrest after cops spotted him “holding what appeared to be a handgun with a extended barrel” exterior a gas station in The Bronx.

That weapon turned out to be a loaded, silencer-equipped Ruger MKI pistol and he was sentenced to 2-1/2 decades in prison, adopted by 3 several years of supervised launch, according to court docket data.

Centeno was launched from custody in September 2020, in accordance to the federal Bureau of Prisons internet site.

The pending legal grievance rates him with a few felonies and two misdemeanors for allegedly owning a loaded, Springfield Armory .45 caliber pistol stuck in his waistband inside of 498 E. 138th St., which is residence to the 24-hour Puerto Rican eatery El Viejo Gran Cafe.

The newest gun scenario will be taken about the by the US Attorney’s Business office for the Southern District of New York, resources claimed.

Talking on behalf of Morales, a spokesman for the condition courtroom process stated, “Bail statutes in New York State are really distinct: Bail is solely to make certain a defendant’s return to court.”

“Each felony circumstance need to be taken care of as an island,” Business of Court Administration spokesman Lucian Chalfen explained.

“Clearly, some islands are simpler to navigate than many others.”

The prime charges from Centeno are way too really serious to be included by the state’s controversial bail-reform, which stops judges from setting bail for defendants coated with most misdemeanors and a lot of felonies.

Neither Centeno’s courtroom-appointed defense lawyer, Bardia Eshghi of The Bronx Defenders, nor a spokesperson for his business returned requests for comment.