The hard-working Manhattan bodega worker languishing on Rikers Island on a murder charge after fending off a violent ex-con was sprung from jail Thursday after a judge agreed to lower his sky-high bail.
The plight of dad-of-three Jose Alba — detailed in a front-page Post story Thursday — was eased after his family was able to post the reduced bond with the help of his boss following a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“He has every intention to return to court and defend this case,” Alba’s attorney, Danielle Jackson of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, said in court.
Alba, 61, was sent to Rikers Island on a whopping $250,000 bail — half of what prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had requested at his arraignment Saturday night, claiming the worker was a flight risk because of a planned trip to the Dominican Republic next week.
Under state law, Alba would have had to be released Thursday as prosecutors had not yet presented the second-degree murder case to the grand jury — but they could delay the presentation if he was free on bail.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors said they had negotiated a new bail package with Alba’s lawyer and asked Judge Jonathan Svetkey to reduce the amount to $50,000.
Under the terms, Alba has to wear an ankle bracelet, surrender his passport and is not allowed to leave the five boroughs, which Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sigall said “will ensure the fact that the defendant will not go to the DR as he planned to.”
Alba’s son Jeffrey, the owner of the corner store and a representative of a city bodega workers group banded together to post the $5,000 needed to spring him on a bail bond.
Alba will be fitted with a monitoring ankle bracelet by the sheriff’s department before being released.
Prosecutors put off presenting the case to a grand jury until July 20, but wouldn’t say if the murder charge was still on the table.
“I would be stunned if this case proceeds as a murder-two case or if this guy was convicted,” said attorney Mark Bederow, a former Manhattan prosecutor.
“I don’t think a grand jury would indict him for murder in the second degree, and I don’t think a jury would convict him beyond a reasonable doubt given what the justification statute states,” he added, referring to a self-defense claim.
