A prisoner spent almost five months behind bars unaware he could have been freed by paying his $2 bail.
Aitabdel Salem, aged 41, was an inmate at the Rikers Island Prison from November 2014 to April 2015.
The Queens man was jailed for attacking a police officer who arrested him for stealing a coat.
His bail was initially set at $25,000 but prosecutors failed to get an indictment, he was then ordered to be released.
He still had dollar bails set on each of two minor offenses, including mischief charges and tampering with a cash machine.
Aitabdel Salem blames his previous lawyer for the confusion.
His new attorney released a statement: ‘You can’t do what you don’t know and if you’re a defendant in a criminal case you certainly have a right to rely upon the system what your next court date is.’
“Salem was shocked and dismayed and frustrated that his case was unconscionably mishandled and there was no communication by his attorney telling him his bail was $2 which he could have made at any moment,” Glenn Hardy, one of Salem’s new attorneys, said at a recent court hearing.
