Sandy MaloneNew York, NY – The offspring of a powerful New York City family has been charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder on a police officer.
The latest charges come after major drug charges were dropped due to a minor technicality, the New York Post reported.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said officers responded to a call for shots fired in a wooded area near Androvette Street and Arthur Kill Road on Staten Island at about 1 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2017.
Upon arrival, officers encountered Allen and Jonathan Derbyshire in the woods, and they were both wearing body armor.
Allen allegedly turned and pointed his weapon at the arriving officers, and police opened fire, the New York Post reported.
“The officers responded by firing several shots back at the male and struck him numerous times, I believe three times, in the left leg, once in the left arm,” NYPD Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre said, according to SI Live.
Derbyshire fled police and was captured several hours later.
Officers found a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic Glock pistol at the scene, SI Live reported.
Investigators were able to match Derbyshire’s fingerprints to those found on the Bushmaster rifle, WABC reported.
Derbyshire pleaded guilty to third-degree weapons possession and was sentenced to serve one year, SI Live reported.
But Allen’s path to justice was significantly more convoluted.
Allen is the son of two well-known former prosecutors, and his grandfather was a judge.
His great-grandmother is long-time New York Post publisher Dorothy Schiff, the New York Post reported.
After Allen was shot by the police and arrested, detectives received a tip that there were lots of drugs in his home on Kreisher Street. So they conducted a raid.
But when officers applied for the search warrant, they mistakenly referred to the home as a multi-family unit versus a single home, the New York Post reported.
The mistake was enough for Allen to beat 11 drug-related charges for the six ounces of marijuana and 2,000 Xanax and Oxycodone pills that were found in the raid.
This time around Allen is facing two counts of attempted murder of a police officer for allegedly pointing his Glock at the arriving officers, the New York Post reported.
The charges carry a sentence of 20 years to life.
Allen has been out on $150,000 bail since he was released from the hospital, and prosecutors failed to get the bail increased with the latest charges, the New York Post reported.
He is due back in court on March 27.
Allen’s attorney, Jay Goldberg, said the new charges are a desperate attempt by the prosecutors to save a case that has already died, the New York Post reported.
“The new charges are a mark of desperation fabricated by the prosecution when they realized they couldn’t prove their case,” Goldberg said. “This is designed as a bullying pressure tactic to try to force [Allen] to take a plea.”