Testimony from the Daniel Penny trial proves that no good deed goes unpunished

Since the Daniel Penny trial began, witness after witness has described the sheer terror they felt while riding the Uptown F train. homeless homeless man jordan neely He entered the car shouting and threatening.

One teenage girl testified that she was so scared she thought she would faint.

an old woman Was “scared”. A 29-year-old man said he was “very scared”.

All testified that they had never before experienced such intense nervousness while traveling by train.

But on Tuesday, one man was clearly terrified of appearing in that courtroom protesters outside and multiple blue supporters inside,

Scared to be on the stand. Becoming a party to Penny’s potential acquittal and what it would mean for her personal safety.

And it was the fear of losing his freedom, said Eric Gonzalez, that made him initially fabricated parts of his story To the investigators.

Gonzalez, 39, was the man in the black hat seen in the now-familiar footage from May 1, 2023 — helping to restrain Neely’s flailing arms as Penny held him in the chokehold that led to his death.

The Bronx resident testified that he arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station when the train was stopping and encountered a physical struggle on the dirty subway floor.

“Everyone was frantic and saying ‘call the police’, so I assumed everyone was trying to hold each other off until the police arrived,” he said.

Gonzalez told the jury that he “jumped in and tried to help.”

But when it is later revealed that Neely has died and Penny has been arrested, Gonzalez becomes so terrified of “being accused of murder” that he takes all his leave from work and goes into hiding.

And when he initially spoke to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, he now admits, he had fabricated parts of his story.

Two weeks earlier, Gonzalez was granted immunity to testify.

Yes, he admits that he lied about being at the scene a long time ago and that Neely hit him, causing Penny to spring into action. All this to save his own skin.

This admission damaged his credibility as a witness. But that doesn’t make Gonzalez an unsympathetic person. His efforts to assist Penny, which included struggling with Neely, taking the man’s pulse and turning him onto his side in a “recovery” position, were captured on video and examined frame by frame.

The footage proved that both he and Penny had fallen into the trap of the old adage “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Despite his agreement with the prosecutor, Gonzalez was still worried about what would happen if his testimony would help free Penny.

“Are you afraid of people who want to prosecute my client?” Penny’s defense attorney Steven Ryser asked.

“Yes,” Gonzalez said.

Razer continued: “You fear that if you testify in a manner helpful to my client, you might suffer consequences, correct?”

Positive.

“With all these protests going on, I’m scared for myself, I’m scared for my family,” said Gonzalez, a father of two. Underscoring how politically charged this sham of a criminal case is. Is accused.

Throughout his testimony, Gonzalez’s face went from fear of a deer in headlights to shame at being caught in a deception — the kind of shame that sends a Catholic to the confessional.

But removing his words from the equation, the video showed Gonzalez fearlessly intervening.

Both he and Penny activated their instincts to protect New Yorkers from the Gotham City-like chaos and violence that plagued the underground at the time.

Now, there is one Had to remain behind bars for almost two decadesAnd it seems that the other did everything he could to avoid being helpful again.

Perverse and dangerous lesson: Don’t get involved next time.