NY Post
A Queens man with 167 arrests on his record was busted yet again this week for shoplifting from a Rite Aid on the Upper East Side, The Post has learned. Jamel Pringle, 39, was nabbed around 8:15 a.m. Monday for stealing 48 items worth close to $430 from the drug store on Second Avenue near East 96th Street, police and Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday. As with most of his prior arrests, he was charged with petit larceny — a misdemeanor that is not bail-eligible under the state’s new criminal justice reform law. Police sources joked that the serial thief “gets frequent flier miles” cycling through the system each time he’s freed on supervised release, thanks to the controversial bail reform laws. But on Tuesday, a Manhattan judge finally ordered Pringle held on bail — at the request of prosecutors — saying she didn’t believe he would return to court otherwise. “It would take me all day to go through this rap sheet,” Judge Rachel Pauley said at Pringle’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court as she set his bail at $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond. Prosecutors from District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had requested bail, citing an amendment to the law that allows repeat offenders who commit a new felony or class A misdemeanor while out on a similar offense to have bail set if both crimes involved harm to a person or property. Pringle’s criminal history is “extensive” and includes one felony conviction, 88 misdemeanor convictions and 39 failures to appear, according to Assistant District Attorney Cory Robinson.
