WASHINGTON — New York City bodega clerk Jose Alba will be among the witnesses who testify next week about District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s performance at a special House Judiciary Committee “field hearing” near the DA’s Lower Manhattan office.
Alba, then 61, was charged by Bragg’s office with second-degree murder last year after he fatally stabbed ex-con Austin Simon, 35, who attacked Alba while he worked inside a Harlem shop.
Bragg ultimately dropped the case against Alba amid public outcry, determining that surveillance footage showed he acted in self-defense — but not before Alba was locked up on Rikers Island for several days.
Alba moved back to the Dominican Republic after being traumatized by the experience, sources told The Post. He reportedly is planning to sue Bragg for wrongfully prosecuting him.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced two other witnesses for the April 17 hearing: Madeline Brame, chairwoman of the Victims Rights Reform Council and Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Rights NY.
Brame’s son, Army vet and father of three Hason Correa, was beaten and stabbed to death in Harlem by a group of four assailants in October 2018. Last year, Bragg’s office cut a plea deal with the lone female defendant that sprung her from prison for time served. Another defendant pleaded guilty to gang assault and was sentenced to just seven years behind bars.
Harrison’s boyfriend, Kevin Davis, was fatally knifed outside a New Jersey club in January 2005 along with his best friend. Three suspects were arrested in the case, two of whom cut deals with prosecutors to get the charges dropped. The third pleaded guilty and only served a minimal sentence.
Victims Rights NY currently maintains a “Fire Alvin Bragg” petition addressed to Gov. Hochul by the organization and Correa’s family.
“He’s obviously in the wrong profession,” Harrison told The Post Wednesday. “He should’ve just either stayed in his obviously lucrative career as a private civil attorney or joined the public defender’s office.
“We don’t need public defenders as prosecutors,” she said. “We need prosecutors as prosecutors.”
Harrison said she hopes the Congressional hearings will prompt change nationwide to help combat “the crime crisis” in the country.
“You know, this really shouldn’t be about politics,” she added. “This should be about the victims.”
The committee indicated that additional witnesses may join the unusual hearing, which targets Bragg’s approach to crime after the DA indicted former President Donald Trump on charges linked to 2016 hush-money payments. Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges.
New York City bodega clerk Jose Alba will testify about District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s performance at a special House Judiciary Committee “field hearing.”
Bragg’s office charged Alba with second-degree murder last year after he fatally stabbed a man who attacked him inside a Harlem shop.
Bragg ultimately dropped the case against Alba due to public outcry, determining that surveillance footage showed he acted in self-defense. Alec TabakBefore bringing charges against Trump, Bragg, an elected Democrat, downgraded the severity of charges against many offenders — and Republicans announced Monday they would spotlight Bragg’s “victims” with the field hearing on his home turf.
In the first 11 months of his DA tenure, Bragg downgraded 52% of felony cases to misdemeanors. When felony charges were brought, his office won a conviction just 51% of the time.
Bragg charged Trump, the 76-year-old front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, with allegedly falsifying business records by not accurately describing payments on internal company documents.
The committee indicated additional witnesses may join the hearing, which will target Bragg’s approach to crime after the DA indicted former President Donald Trump. Gabriella Bass for N.Y. Post
The New York Post covered the story on its front page on July 8, 2022. rfarainoThe charges usually would be misdemeanors with two-year statutes of limitation, but Bragg elevated the counts to felonies by alleging the infractions occurred to conceal other crimes — apparently federal campaign finance violations, though Bragg has been coy about what exactly the underlying crime was.
Federal candidates are allowed to spend unlimited amounts on their own campaigns, but then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who was reimbursed by Trump, would have exceeded the contribution limit if he used his own money to pay $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels and $150,000 to Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, whose story was purchased by the National Enquirer in a “catch and kill” deal.
The Justice Department chose not to prosecute Trump on the federal campaign finance charge in part because of its failure in 2012 to convict former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), who used more than $1 million of donor money to hide his affair and love child with aide Rielle Hunter.
Bragg has refused to comply with document requests from three House committees relating to what they call a “politically motivated” Trump case, and on Tuesday his office filed a lawsuit seeking to block a Judiciary Committee subpoena of former DA employee Mark Pomerantz, who quit in protest last year over Bragg’s decision not to prosecute Trump in a different financial matter.
Additional reporting by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon






