Veteran Daniel Penny is acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case over Jordan Neely's death

NEW YORK (AP) — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.

A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.

Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. While celebrating later with his attorneys, he said he felt “great.”

Both applause and anger erupted in the courtroom, and Neely's father and two supporters were ushered out after audibly reacting. Another person also left, wailing with tears.

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said outside the courthouse. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged."

The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white.

There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, including on Monday. High-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.

Penny’s attorneys argued he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures.

Penny “finally got the justice he deserved,” one of his lawyers, Thomas Kenniff, said while celebrating the outcome with him at a downtown Manhattan pub.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat whose office brought the case, said prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end” and respect the verdict.

The anonymous jury, which had started deliberating Tuesday, was escorted out of court to a van.

Penny, 26, served four years in the Marines and went on to study architecture.

Neely, 30, was a sometime subway performer with a tragic life story: His mother was killed and stuffed in a suitcase when he was a teenager.

As a younger man, Neely did Michael Jackson tributes — complete with moonwalks — on the city’s streets and subways. But Neely also struggled with mental illness after losing his mother, whose boyfriend was convicted of murdering her.

He subsequently was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia, was repeatedly hospitalized, and used the synthetic cannabinoid K2 and realized it negatively affected his thinking and behavior, according to medical records seen at the trial. The drug was in his system when he died.

Neely told a doctor in 2017 that being homeless, living in poverty and having to “dig through the garbage” for food made him feel so hopeless that he sometimes thought of killing himself, hospital records show.

About six years later, he boarded a subway under Manhattan on May 1, 2023, hurled his jacket onto the floor, and declared that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care if he died or went to jail, witnesses said. Some told 911 operators that he tried to attack people or indicated he’d harm riders, and several testified that they were afraid.

Neely was unarmed, with nothing but a muffin in his pocket, and didn’t touch any passengers. One said he made lunging movements that alarmed her enough that she shielded her 5-year-old from him.

Penny came up behind Neely, grabbed his neck, took him to the floor and “put him out,” as the veteran told police at the scene.

Passengers' video showed that at one point during the roughly six-minute hold, Neely tapped an onlooker’s leg and gestured to him. Later, he briefly got an arm free. But he went still nearly a minute before Penny released him.

“He’s dying,” an unseen bystander said in one video. “Let him go!”

A witness who stepped in to hold down Neely’s arms testified that he told Penny to free the man, though Penny’s lawyers noted the witness’ story changed significantly over time.

Penny told detectives shortly after the encounter that Neely threatened to kill people and the chokehold was an attempt to “de-escalate” the situation until police could arrive. The veteran said he held on so long because Neely periodically tried to break loose.

“I wasn’t trying to injure him. I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anyone else. He’s threatening people. That’s what we learn in the Marine Corps,” Penny told the detectives.

However, one of Penny's Marine Corps instructors testified that the veteran misused a chokehold technique he’d been taught.

Prosecutors said Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person. Prosecutors also argued that any need to protect passengers quickly ebbed when the train doors opened at the next station, seconds after Penny took action.

Although Penny told police he’d used “a choke” or “a chokehold,” one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, cast it as a Marine-taught chokehold “modified as a simple civilian restraint.” The defense lawyers contended Penny didn’t consistently apply enough pressure to kill Neely.

Contradicting a city medical examiner’s finding, a pathologist hired by the defense said Neely died not from the chokehold but from the combined effects of K2, schizophrenia, his struggle and restraint, and a blood condition that can lead to fatal complications during exertion.

Penny did not testify, but relatives, friends and fellow Marines did — describing him as an upstanding, patriotic and empathetic man.

The manslaughter charge would have required proving that Penny recklessly caused Neely's death. Criminally negligent homicide involves engaging in serious “blameworthy conduct” while not perceiving such a risk. Both charges were felonies punishable by prison time.

During the criminal trial, Neely’s father filed a wrongful death suit against Penny.

Associated Press journalists Joseph B. Frederick and Ted Shaffrey contributed.

Daniel Penny, center, arrives at criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A person protests the not guilty verdict of Daniel Penny outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

People protest the not guilty verdict of Daniel Penny outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING Attorney Donte Mills, left, comforts an emotional Andre Zachery, father of Jordan Neely, outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING Andre Zachery, father of Jordan Neely, and attorney Donte Mills outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Rival protesters for the Daniel Penny trial gather outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A person protests the not guilty verdict of Daniel Penny, not pictured, outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING Andre Zachery, father of Jordan Neely, at a press conference outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A person protesting the not guilty verdict of Daniel Penny is arrested by police outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A person protesting the not guilty verdict of Daniel Penny is arrested by police outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Attorney Donte Mills, left, comforts an emotional Andre Zachary, father of Jordan Neely, outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Andre Zachary, father of Jordan Neely, and attorney Donte Mills outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Andre Zachary, father of Jordan Neely, at a press conference outside the criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Daniel Penny arrives at criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Daniel Penny, center, arrives at criminal court, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Daniel Penny walks towards the courtroom, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court is to rule on Monday in a case involving 10 people accused of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, allegations her daughter said damaged her health and family life.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 60, are accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron ’s wife was born a man and linking the 24-year age gap with her husband to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.

Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October.

Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.

Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered as having played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.

The X account of Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations.

Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted. They face up to two years in prison if convicted.

The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.

The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.

Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.

FILE - French President's wife Brigitte Macron arrives ahead of the ceremony outside "La Belle Equipe" bar, Thursday Nov. 13, 2025 in Paris as part of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of terrorist attacks. (Ludovic Marin, Pool photo via AP, File)