Members Pack Brooklyn Courtroom in Arson Case

Dozens of TWU Local 100 members went to Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday to face down a lowlife who tried to set a token booth on fire during a failed robbery. About 30 union officers and members filled the public rows behind the prosecutor’s table as Everett Robinson was arraigned on attempted murder, attempted assault in the first degree and other charges. Robinson briefly turned and took notice of the TWU Local 100 contingent glaring at him. He was then led shackled back to jail on Rikers Island. Justice William Harrington continued Robinson’s bail requirement: $50,000 cash or $75,000 bond.

Local 100 members then marched down the hallway with their fists in the air as photographers from the New York Daily News and New York Post snapped away.

Stations Vice President Derick Echevarria and Stations Chairman Joe Bermudez told the reporters they were pleased the Brooklyn district attorney’s office jacked up the charges against Robinson to attempted murder and first-degree assault. Robinson was initially charge by police with attempted arson and second-degree assault, which carry significantly lower maximum prison sentences. He now faces a minimum five years behind bars and a maximum 25 years upstate. But Echevarria and Bermudez were angered that Justice Harrington denied - without explanation - a media request to take photographs of Robinson in the courtroom. “Why is he coddling someone who tried to kill one of our members, a Station Agent who was simply doing her job serving the riders?,” Bermudez said.

Station Agent Percilla Augustine-Soverall, 44, told police that she was in the booth at about 10:45 p.m. on Aug. 12 when Robinson doused the aperture with a liquid that smelled like gasoline. “He said that if I didn’t give him the money, he would light me up,” Augustine-Soverall said. Robinson then held up a shirt or rag and lit it on fire, according to the criminal complaint filed by NYPD Det. Daniel Artega. The fire apparently spread more quickly than Robinson anticipated, forcing him to drop it to the floor before he could stuff it into the booth’s opening, according to a law enforcement source.

Still, the smoke from the burning cloth filled the mezzanine and booth, triggering the Halon fire-suppression system. “Everything was just cloudy in the booth,” Augustine-Soverall told the New York Daily News. “I couldn’t do anything…I just started crying. I was in shock.” Agent Augustine-Soverall was not physically injured but remains traumatized.