Judge Evelyn Laporte of Brooklyn Criminal Court, who released a violent ex-convict weeks before he allegedly killed a cop, is taking two days off work after Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members criticized her, the New York Post reports. Laport released Lamont Pride without bail after his arrest on drug charges. There was a warrant for his arrest in North Carolina for an August shooting when he was busted on Nov. 3 in New York for crack and pot possession — but Laporte rejected prosecutors' pleas to set bail at $2,500.
Judge Laporte “has no business being in a Criminal Court,” said Councilman Peter Vallone, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes refused to criticize Laporte, calling her a “very good judge” who had been assistant prosecutor” when she worked for him. Bloomberg said Pride would have been behind bars if Laporte had done her job properly, but Hynes disagreed, saying that to suggest “there is some complicity in the death of this heroic police officer, I think, is really over the top.”