Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC, I'm Janae Pierre. A federal judge has sentenced former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison. In July, a jury convicted Menendez of bribery, helping a foreign government, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said he traded his political power for gold bars, cash, and a Mercedes Benz. Menendez, who's 71 years old, had asked for leniency and cited his lifetime of public service. He was once one of the most powerful politicians in New Jersey and the Senate, but prosecutors say he traded that influence for nearly $500,000 in bribes.

More community groups throughout New York City will soon be able to access the millions of dollars pouring in from legal settlements with opioid manufacturers. WNYC's Caroline Lewis has the details.

Caroline Lewis: The nonprofits operating the city's 14 syringe service programs are among those that will be eligible for the funds. These programs offer clean needles and fentanyl test strips, as well as access to treatment and social services. So far, just one of these nonprofits, OnPoint NYC, has received opioid settlement dollars from the city for programs in Harlem and Washington Heights, but officials say they will soon solicit proposals from additional organizations. Settlement dollars are also flowing to the city's public hospitals and to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

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Janae Pierre: Daniel Penny's criminal trial may be over, but the debate about when it's okay to use force is not. We'll dive into that after the break. Stay close.

Announcer: This is NYC Now.

Janae Pierre: The trial of Daniel Penny last fall reignited a conversation about the state of public safety in New York City. You may remember Penny was found not guilty in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who had schizophrenia. As a result of the trial, some commentators warn that New Yorkers may be more hesitant to defend themselves or others from danger. But others worry about the opposite, that people will be emboldened to unnecessarily take matters into their own hands. My colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Samantha Max about how this case could affect self-defense in the Big Apple.

Michael Hill: Sam, tell us about what some are calling the Daniel Penny effect. What is that and what do people say about it?

Samantha Max: Just to remind people what happened, Daniel Penny was riding the F train from Brooklyn in 2023 when Jordan Neely boarded and, according to witnesses, started yelling that he was hungry, thirsty, and ready to die or go to jail. Within less than 30 seconds, Penny approached him from behind, wrapped his arm around Neely's neck, pulled him to the ground, and continued to hold him in a chokehold for about six minutes, and Neely died. The central question at Daniel Penny's trial this past fall was when is it appropriate for people to take matters into their own hands, and how much force is appropriate in different situations.

The Daniel Penny effect is this idea that people won't want to act because they don't want to be in a position where police, prosecutors, and the public are weighing in about whether their actions were justified after the fact. The phrase has started popping up in articles and news segments, especially in the last month, and particularly in conservative media. After a woman was lit on fire on the subway in December, commentators criticized people on the subway platform for not doing more to help her, and they blamed the Daniel Penny effect.

Steven Raiser, one of Penny's lawyers, told me he thinks the Daniel Penny effect means New Yorkers may be more afraid to protect themselves or others because of his client's prosecution.

Steven Raiser: It does create a chilling effect because although the right result occurred, our client had to go through a lot to get there.

Samantha Max: He says Penny was trying to restrain Neely until police arrived, and that he was trying to protect himself and others on the train, but prosecutors say Penny went way too far and used too much force.

Michael Hill: What's the legal standard for self-defense in New York, Sam?

Samantha Max: The official term is justification. For force to be justified, the person has to believe it's necessary to use force to defend themself or someone else from imminent harm. A reasonable person in their position in the same circumstances would have to believe the same thing. To bring a case, prosecutors have to think they can convince a jury that the person's actions were not justified. I spoke with the former Manhattan prosecutor, who told me the decision about whether or not to charge these types of cases is really complicated because people may disagree. It's also complicated for jurors to decide because their perceptions of public safety affect what they think is reasonable.

Michael Hill: Is it common for these types of cases to go to trial?

Samantha Max: I should start by saying it's rare in general for any case to go to trial. It is common for people to claim self-defense after they face criminal charges, but often those claims go nowhere. I did find more than a dozen cases, both fatal and non-fatal, in the last few years. For instance, people might remember a Harlem bodega clerk who fatally stabbed someone who appeared to attack him behind the counter. In almost all those cases, prosecutors either didn't bring charges or if they did, they dismissed the case fairly soon after.

Penny was this exception. The case went to trial, it was highly publicized in court for weeks, and then after all that, the jury deadlocked on the more serious charge and they acquitted him of criminally negligent homicide.

Michael Hill: Just a few weeks after Daniel Penny's arrest in 2023, there was another deadly encounter on the subway with a person who claimed self-defense. You spoke with the person at the heart of it. What happened?

Samantha Max: Jordan Williams was riding the subway with his girlfriend when he says someone boarded, started harassing people, and then hit him and his girlfriend. Williams doesn't remember exactly what happened next, but officials say he stabbed the man in the chest and the man died. Prosecutors charged him, but then dismissed the charges a couple weeks later, citing self-defense. Williams says he hadn't heard about Penny when this happened and didn't know Penny was facing criminal charges for using force on the subway. Even if Williams had, he says he doesn't think he would have responded differently.

Jordan Williams: I don't think that fear of prosecution should come into your mind when you're in that situation because you're possibly rolling the dice with your life. I don't think that that's a smart thing to do because, in my situation, I could be the one that's not here anymore.

Samantha Max: He says he's still in disbelief that someone died, and the whole situation has left a lot of lingering trauma.

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Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Samantha Max talking with my colleague Michael Hill. Every day, people across New York City are making a positive impact on their communities. We're calling them community champions. Let me introduce you to Darnell Benoit, the founder and director of the Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The community-based organization focuses on supporting and uplifting Haitian immigrant youth.

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Darnell Benoit: I came here in the '80s. I was 13 years old and we lived in Queens, and the high school I went to I didn't feel that the Haitian students, the immigrant students, were well supported. The idea of having a space for Haitian youth because I wasn't lucky to have a space like that, it was always in my mind. I got older, I became different things. One of the things was to be an ESL adult education teacher. I encountered so many immigrants that struggled with the public schools. Students who were pushed out of high school or who dropped out. After so many years of seeing those problems, I decided to look into it, to investigate it. That's how everything started.

Flanbwayan is like a fiery red tree that grows in Haiti. It's everywhere and it's always beautiful. It stands out. For me, that tree is a symbol that wherever you are you can shine, you can bloom, you can be beautiful just like that tree. The literacy project for us is reading the word in the world. It's learning everything around you. Students have access to books, workshops, dance classes, drum circles, and guests that we bring into the space. We make sure that students are rooted in their own culture.

We were lucky to find this space here in East Flatbush, right in the heart of the Haitian community, which is super exciting. In this community, we don't have too many organizations, and the organizations we do have often service older immigrants. To have a youth space in the community, it's very special. Families, when they come here, it's Haitian Creole that's spoken. They feel right at home. They're not afraid to ask questions. They're not afraid to be themselves. It's an immediate comfort.

We're happy to be celebrating 20 years this year. For the next 20 years, we want the Flanbwayan tree to grow bigger and more people that do their own Flanbwayan. Create your own space where you are in the community and support other people.

Janae Pierre: Darnell Benoit is the founder and director of Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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