Accused NYC rapist was free because no one told court he blew plea deal in assault case

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004

Accused NYC rapist was free because no one told court he blew plea deal in assault case​



By
Joe Marino,

Georgett Roberts,

Elizabeth Rosner and

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon


March 8, 2023 7:46pm
Updated












A career criminal charged in a brutal Upper West Side rape over the weekend should’ve been behind bars after blowing a plea deal in a separate Bronx case — but no one told the judge, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Jamel McIver, 30, who already had 15 busts on his rap sheet, cut a deal in August to dodge jail time on a 2019 sex assault and burglary case in The Bronx if he completed a two-year in-patient drug rehab program, according to the sources and court records.
If he didn’t get through the program, he’d face five years behind bars.
But at a court hearing in February — just over a week before the heinous Manhattan rape — both the judge and prosecutor were left in the dark about McIver flunking out of the program.
That’s because the Osborne Association, the city-funded agency that placed him in rehab, only told his defense attorney he’d been booted after using K-2 — and the lawyer apparently missed the email, leaving McIver free.
Early Saturday morning, McIver allegedly followed a 21-year-old woman into her Manhattan apartment building and raped her in the stairwell.
Bronx prosecutors said they were unaware he was out of rehab until he was arrested Sunday after his own family turned him in.

Jamel McIver
Jamel McIver, 30, flunked out of three court-ordered rehab programs in just six months but remained free — when he was busted on rape charges in Manhattan on Saturday.Twitter/Jamel McIver
“The Osborne Association—which facilitates the drug/mental health treatment programming—did not tell our Office this information,” a rep for Bronx District Attorney Darcell Clark said in a statement.


“The defense did not notify us,” the spokesperson said. “We found out after the defendant was arrested in the Manhattan case.”


McIver was ordered back to Bronx court on Wednesday but refused to get on the bus at Rikers Island, where he’s being held on the Manhattan rape charge.


With the hearing proceeding without the pervy defendant, Bronx Judge Timothy Lewis demanded to know why defense lawyer Jesse Hoberman-Kelly didn’t report that his client had been booted from the Odyssey House treatment facility in East Harlem.


“Obviously at some point, there’s a failure to communicate with Mr. Hoberman-Kelly,” Lewis said. “When did you first become aware of that, Mr. Hoberman-Kelly?”


The lawyer conceded that the Osborne Association did inform him prior to the Feb. 22 compliance hearing in the case that McIver had been kicked out of rehab — but he didn’t see it until it was too late.

Jamel McIver
Jamel McIver, 30, already had 15 busts on his rap sheet when he was charged with an assault on a Bronx teen in 2019 and the rape of a Manhattan woman last Saturday. Gabriella Bass
“Osborne did send an email on the 22nd,” Hoberman-Kelly told the judge. “I apologize to the court. I was in the middle of a trial and it was taking up all my attention and I did not review the email until around 5:30 p.m.


“Again, I did not give this the attention as needed because of my trial,” he said. “I did not really look into it.”


An Osborne rep confirmed in court that the agency “provided an update around 9:30 a.m.” on Feb. 22 that McIver was out of the program, but “did not know how to reach the DA.”


It’s not clear why Osborne didn’t also try to notify the court — or whether it was required to by law.


Sources said McIver flunked out of two rehab programs before he was placed at Odyssey House January — and he was kicked out again after allegedly getting high.

Jamel McIver
Police said surveillance cameras captured Jamel McIver, 30, dumping his closes after allegedly raping a 21-year-old Manhattan woman on the Upper West Side Saturday.DCPI
The case stemmed from an April 8, 2019, incident during which prosecutors said McIver broke into a 16-year-old teen’s bedroom and threatened her, making her fondle him.


Cops caught up with him two days later and hit him with a slew of charges, including sexual contact with a minor, sexually motivated burglary and attempted burglary.






But pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted burglary on August 3, 2022 as part of the deal Bronx prosecutors signed off on. It required him to complete two years of rehab in order to avoid a five-year prison sentence and being listed as a sex offender.


If he made it through he would get a conditional discharge in the case.


Lewis held compliance hearings in September, November and January to check on McIver’s status in his rehab. But it is not known why McIver wasn’t thrown in jail then, despite getting kicked out of two earlier programs in October and December.


By Feb. 19, staffers at Odyssey were tipped off that McIver was using the synthetic drug K-2, which was confirmed after a quick internal investigation.


A rep for the facility said in court Wednesday that McIver was found “totally under the influence and at that point, there was some K-2 found in the area where he was staying and [had] two or three packs with him.”


On Feb. 22, McIver was told he was getting booted from the program — the same day his lawyer was in court asking for an adjournment because he was on trial on another case.


Meanwhile, McIver remained free to allegedly commit the Manhattan rape last weekend.


The Osborne Association addressed the case in a statement to The Post Wednesday.


“The Osborne Association is aware of the charges filed against a participant in one of our programs,” the statement said. “We are cooperating with the Court and District Attorney’s office on this matter and cannot comment further at this time.”

Jamel McIver
The NYPD released surveillance footage of Jamel McIver in the Bronx in 2019 after he molested a 16-year-old girl by breaking into her bedroom and making her fondle him.
Hoberman-Kelly declined to comment as he left the courtroom Wednesday.


Lewis ordered McIver back to Bronx Supreme Court on March 15.


McIver’s lengthy rap sheet includes a 2013 arrest in Dover, Delaware for allegedly beating his two-month-old son and a 2018 menacing charge in Mount Vernon in 2018.





The outcome of those cases is not immediately available.
 
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