Vagrant who attacked ‘Boardwalk Empire’ actor Michael Stuhlbarg once pummeled good Samaritan who tried to give him a coat
The vagrant who allegedly attacked “Boardwalk Empire” actor Michael Stuhlbarg with a rock on Sunday previously made headlines for pummeling a good Samaritan who tried to give him a coat.
Parolee Xavier Israel, 27 — who allegedly hit Stuhlbarg in the neck while the actor was on a jog near Central Park on the Upper East Side — had been caught-on-video unloading on a 59-year-old man who covered him with his coat in January 2022.
The disturbing video showed Israel lying on a Fifth Avenue subway when the Samaritan removes his coat and covers the homeless man — who promptly jumps to his feet, shoves the Samaritan to the ground and snatches his wallet.
Video shows the victim had tried to retrieve his wallet, but Israel punched him and threw him back to the ground.
Israel fled the scene but was arrested a short time later. Witnesses told police that he stuffed cash inside his pants and officers recovered nearly $1,500 from him, sources previously told The Post.
Israel was hit with several charges, including assault, robbery and grand larceny.
He was put behind bars on $25,000 bail — a move his lawyer at the time, Brian Kennedy, decried, complaining it went against a policy District Attorney Alvin Bragg implemented on his first day in office that defendants have “a presumption of pretrial nonincarceration in every case” except a handful of major crimes.
They include violent felonies in which victims suffer serious injuries through the use of guns and other deadly weapons, sex offenses, felony domestic violence and public corruption.
“If you’re gonna make that kind of statement in the memo, then you should abide by it,” the lawyer told The Post after the hearing. “They didn’t, [they] argued for bail when he should have been presumptuously released.”
In requesting bail, prosecutors argued that Israel has ties to both Pennsylvania and Ohio, where he has prior arrests for “assault, drug possession, theft, domestic violence assault and has multiple convictions.”
Prosecutors also noted that Israel was busted twice for assault in New York in January 2022.
In the first incident, he was accused of punching a man and a woman, both 18, as they sat on a rock in Central Park and shouted obscenities at him. Several days later, he allegedly attacked a 49-year-old woman on Fifth Avenue and East 84th Street after she saw him sleeping on the ground and tried to help.
He was charged with third-degree assault and given desk appearance tickets in both cases.
Kennedy told the judge that Israel was homeless and likely suffering from mental illeness at the time of the incidents.
“He is likely recovering from a mental illness and is impoverished,” he said. “He is possibly suffering from substance abuse.”
Israel was out on parole at the time of the attack on Stuhlbarg following his Dec. 7, 2023 release from state prison.
He’d been sentenced to two years behind bars and two years of post-release supervision after pleading guilty to attempted robbery stemming from the January 2022 incident.
Israel remained in the custody of the city Department of Correction through November 3, 2023, when he was transferred to state prison. He spent just one month in State Department of Correction custody as he was granted credit toward his 2-year sentence from time served behind bars.
He was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday evening on assault and harassment charges for his alleged attack on Stuhlbarg. Israel was held on $50,000 cash bail in the case.
Stuhlbarg declined medical assistance for the reported pain and bruising on the back of his neck, police and sources said.
The Post has reached out to his reps for comment.
Stuhlbarg has been in New York ahead of staring in “Patriots,” a Broadway play by “The Crown” creator Peter Morgan about the rise of Vladimir Putin.
He will play Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in the play, which begins previews Monday.