You can bet the judge didn't see that coming...but everyone else did.
Ernst Delma, 41, was arrested back in August for assaulting a female NYPD officer, bloodying her nose and mouth. Footage of the incident made the headlines after the arresting officer punched and wrestled with Delma. The career criminal's pants fell down, exposing his buttocks. As a result, the video made the rounds on social media.
Brute who slugged female NYPD cop released after judge lowers bail — and slugs woman in random Times Square attack: police https://t.co/W6SpuXBkvj pic.twitter.com/0nBiQJ7Lew
— New York Post (@nypost) February 21, 2025
Delma had been arguing with a group of children in Clason Point in the Bronx when the rookie female officer intervened. Delma punched her in the face, resulting in his arrest.
It wasn't the first time Delma hit a woman in the face, nor was it the first time he assaulted a police officer. But, this being New York, the judge on the case saw fit to lower his bond such that a mere $8,000 put him back on the streets.
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As reported by the New York Post: "Bronx prosecutors asked that Delma be held on $200,000 bail or a $600,000 bond, but Criminal Court Judge Eugene Bowen set it at $75,000 cash, a $100,000 insurance bond or a $200,000 partially secured bond, which would require him to come up with $20,000. That kept Delma behind bars, but on Sept. 9 he went before [Judge Brenda] Rivera, who lowered the amount to $10,000 cash or an $80,000 bond — which he posted on Oct. 17."
Predictably, Delma was back to his pugilistic pastime in Times Square on Saturday, where he punched a middle-aged woman in the face in a a reportedly unprovoked attack.
Brenda Rivera, the judge who lowered Delma's bond to 13% of the amount requested by prosecutors, was twice rejected for a seat on the bench before being appointed in 2014.
Rivera grew up in the Bronx. As a woman and a civil servant sworn to uphold the law, one fails to see why she feels the need to dole out soft bonds to career criminals, especially one with a pattern of assaulting women and law enforcement officers in Rivera's childhood borough.
Once again, the spotlight returns to recidivism and the soft-on-crime penal system in New York.