The lawyer for New York City’s sucker punch attack suspect alleged at a hearing Tuesday that his client’s been subjected to "character assassination" by the media, as the brother of the victim left in a coma following the unprovoked beating from the sex offender parolee sobbed in the courtroom.
Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old homeless convicted sex offender, was led into the Bronx courtroom in handcuffs, where the defendant kept his head down.
The Vietnamese immigrant, reportedly a member of a street gang, was arrested for the brutal Aug. 12 Bronx attack on 52-year-old Jesus Cortes.
The NYPD recommended an attempted murder charge, but Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s downgraded the charges, and Bui was released on no bail under the state’s controversial bail reform law backed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Public outcry ensued over Bui’s release, and Hochul intervened, leading to the suspect being re-arrested for allegedly violating the terms of his lifetime parole. He’s been held at Rikers Island since. Clark’s prosecutors made no indication Tuesday on whether they’ll upgrade the charges against Bui.
A Sept. 15 date was set for possible arraignment if a grand jury returns an indictment.
The judge ordered no communication between the defendant and Cortes, and his lawyer legal aid Casey Trimble told the court there is no interest and no attempt to do so of his client.
In the gallery was Cortes’ brother, who openly cried during the final minutes. He looked straight at the defendant as he walked out, but Bui did not look back. The family did not want to speak to the press.
Trimble introduced to the judge that "several articles" were written about his client, bringing up issues "completely irrelevant to this criminal case" and insisted that there has been a "character assassination" of his client.
Video shows Bui putting on work gloves on Aug. 12 before approaching Cortes, a Mexican immigrant whom he never met, from behind outside a restaurant and delivering a single blow to the back of his head, laying him out on the concrete.
Cortes suffered a skull fracture, broken cheek and brain bleeding. Bui was previously convicted of first-degree sex abuse in the Bronx in 1995 and was sentenced to six years to life in prison.
He was paroled in 2019 and is now registered as a Level 3 sex offender — the most serious designation — for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl in 1994, according to state records.
