Christopher Neely, the uncle of the man killed during a subway confrontation earlier this month, was arrested again Wednesday morning just before he was scheduled to appear in court on a myriad of grand larceny charges.
Neely, 44, was busted for allegedly stealing one wallet last August, another wallet in April and a $15,000 purse off the back of a chair at a lower Manhattan restaurant on May 18, cops said.
He was charged with three counts of grand larceny — on top of the 12 counts of grand larceny that he was already facing for his alleged crimes.
This was the second time in two weeks cops slipped the bracelets on Neely, who has acted as the family spokesman since his nephew, Jordan, was put in a fatal chokehold by former Marine Daniel Penny after an outburst on a Manhattan F Train on May 1.
Cops first picked Neely up on May 22 near the Port Authority Bus Terminal for allegedly snatching purses from restaurants and using the stolen credit cards at stores throughout Manhattan.
Prosecutors sought to hold Neely on $10,000 bail because he’d been on probation for a 2019 grand larceny case when arrested — and he had a warrant out for violating it.
But a judge released Neely under supervision after his public defender, Gurmeet Singh, argued that Jordan’s death had taken a terrible toll on his family.
“It’s been a very hard experience for the family, a very harrowing experience,” Singh, of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, told the court. “Christopher Neely has been a rock for the family and is taking care of them.”
Neely was due back in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday to answer his original charges. But authorities arrested him before he could appear.
“I don’t see Mr. Neely?” a surprised Judge Josh Hanshaft asked Singh at the hearing.
“Mr. Neely, from what I understand, was picked up this morning,” Singh told the court. “He is in custody currently.
Authorities now say Neely — described by his attorney as a married professional chess player from Harlem — stole a wallet from a woman on Aug. 19, 2022, and then charged $8,650 on her credit cards.
Eight months later, he allegedly stole a wallet from a victim’s purse on East 82nd Street. And in May, he snagged a $15,000 purse from a Mexican restaurant on Church Street in Tribeca, authorities said.
Hanshaft pushed Neely’s case back to July 19 after hearing the news.
Neely was again released under supervision during his arraignment early Thursday morning on his latest charges.
After the hearing, a soft-spoken Neely told The Post in the lobby of Manhattan Criminal Court that his new case is over “old stuff” and has “got nothing to do” with his nephew.
Prosecutors said previously that Neely had been arrested 20 times since June 2022 — while he was on probation — for either grand larceny or criminal possession of stolen property.
Last week, Assistant District Attorney Evan Rufrano said at Neely’s arraignment that the Manhattan DA’s office was prosecuting three of the incidents. But the others still needed further investigation.
When he was arrested last week, Neely had on him seven credit cards that bore different names, Rufrano said.
Police nabbed him near the bus terminal after he tried to flee from a member of the NYPD’s pickpocket squad.
He’d already had a warrant out for allegedly violating his sentence of five years of probation after a 2019 grand larceny bust put him in prison for six months.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino
