A murder exoneree who landed back behind bars this week for allegedly groping a woman and packing an illegal gun maintained his innocence in the latest case Wednesday.
“I don’t even know who this woman that they are talking about is,” James Davis, 39, told The Post as he was led into Manhattan Central Booking.
Davis — who spent 17 years in prison for murder before being exonerated last year — was arrested Tuesday morning after being accused of grabbing a woman’s buttocks at 34th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Law-enforcement sources said he was found to also have an illicit, loaded Ruger .380-caliber handgun on him.
He was charged with forcible touching and harassment in connection to the alleged groping, and separately hit with two weapon possession charges and criminal possession of a controlled substance, cops said.
Asked why he allegedly groped the woman on Wednesday morning, Davis denied doing anything wrong.
“These aren’t even the clothes that I had on. She said somebody in all blue did something to her. I had on blue pants with white [polo shirt],” he said, while chained to three other prisoners being taken to Central Booking.
James Davis was exonerated from jail in 2021 after fatally shooting Blake Harper in 2004 in Brooklyn. Steven Hirsch
James Davis claims he doesn’t know the woman he allegedly groped. James MesserschmidtWhen asked why he allegedly carried a loaded gun, he replied, “I didn’t.”
Davis, of Brooklyn, was decked out in all blue – a Ralph Lauren T-shirt over a long-sleeved blue T-shirt and black Tommy Hilfiger socks tucked into his blue sweatpants. He also wore what appeared to be multi-colored Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 sneakers.
He was ordered held on $25,000 bail at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday night, with Judge Melissa Lewis citing his past “activities and history” and the current charges against him.
Davis was 21 when he was charged with gunning down Blake Harper in 2004 in a beef over a woman during a party at a Brooklyn Masonic lodge. He was freed in April 2021 after a court overturned his conviction.
James Davis is brought out of the Midtown South Precinct in Manhattan after his arrest. James MesserschmidtHis Legal Aid attorneys had argued that a woman who had identified Davis as the shooter, and who has since died, admitted she only implicated him because she was in love with him but he was taken, WPIX TV said in a report after his release last year.
They also argued that their client simply bore a resemblance to the actual killer and that his first lawyer failed to interview other witnesses who could have cleared him in the case.
