A teenager accused of repeatedly taking city subway trains on high-speed joyrides will have to spend more than a month at Rikers Island, or make bail, as she awaits a court-ordered mental health evaluation.
A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge ordered Justine Randal-Pizarro be held on $50,000 cash bail and $75,000 bond Thursday, after determining that an earlier psychological exam, ordered by a Bronx court in May, was out of date.
Randall-Pizarro’s lawyer, Margaret Olsen of the Legal Aid Society, wanted the judge to use that earlier test to get the 18-year-old committed in the hopes of sparing her a stay in the troubled city jail complex.
“Ms. Randall, who is 18 years old, who has these disabilities, who also is transgender, is particularly vulnerable at Rikers,” Olsen said Thursday, asking the judge remand her to a psychiatric facility.
“Rikers is a dangerous place for everyone to be at. It is especially dangerous for Ms. Randall. … I don’t want her to spend any more time there than absolutely necessary, because it’s not going to help her.”
Prosecutors were asking she be held without bail, since she repeatedly went back to stealing trains, or MTA workers’ bags and keys, almost immediately after her release on multiple past arrests.
“She’s even on video standing on top of a moving train,” Assistant District Attorney Olivia Mittman said.
Judge Herbert Moses set her next court date for Sept. 22, and ordered she be marked as female on all her paperwork, to try to ensure she’s not placed into a male housing unit. Transgender detainees have reported being targeted for assault and rape on Rikers Island over the past several years.
Randall-Pizarro pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a slew of charges stemming from four separate transit break-ins in the past four months, after she was hauled into court for skipping an appearance on those charges a day earlier.
She’s accused of stealing MTA workers’ gear from parked trains on two separate occasions, hijacking a parked subway train in East New York and driving it at speeds of 40 mph, and pepper-spraying a transit worker while attempting to break into a parked R train in southern Brooklyn.
MTA President Demetrius Crichlow said he was “grateful” the judge ordered her held on bail.
“If this were an airplane, there’s no question — the person would be facing severe penalty and punishment. It should be no different for a train,” Crichlow said. “Whether they get the person the help that they need or keep her in jail, as long as she is not on the train, as long as she is not affecting our customers, as long as she is not affecting my employees, we are safe again.”
Randall-Pizarro’s mother and her defense lawyer declined comment as they left the courthouse Thursday.
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