The brute who savagely choked and punched EMT Teresa Soler in the back of her ambulance was drunk and deranged — and was an assistant district attorney.
Now a sweetheart deal for prosecutor Michael Jaccarino has the outraged victim crying fix after learning the liquored-up lawyer could dodge jail and keep his job by pleading to a misdemeanor.
“I feel that he’s getting preferential treatment,” said Soler, 46, on the eve of Jaccarino’s Wednesday court date. “That in a way, he is above the law. This is a proverbial slap on the wrist for him.”
The 20-year veteran emergency medical technician took a much harsher blow: a punch to the face that left her with two black eyes after answering a 911 call last fall for the intoxicated man on the Brooklyn Bridge.
But a law enforcement source insisted the assistant DA received no “special treatment,” adding Jaccarino only avoided a felony because he was too drunk for prosecutors to prove intent.
Jaccarino, smelling of booze, immediately flashed his Brooklyn assistant DA badge when the ambulance arrived, Soler recalled. He calmly climbed inside, and Soler put him in a seat belt.
Her partner went up front to drive, and Soler rode in the rear with Jaccarino — who undid his restraint and nearly choked her to death about 1 a.m. on Nov. 10.
“I had this thought: ‘Oh my God, is this how I’m going to go?’ ” she told the Daily News.
“I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t call for help. I couldn’t swallow.”
Her partner, driving toward Beth Israel Hospital, was unaware of the life-and-death struggle. But EMT Charles Bernardi finally heard Soler’s muffled cries and slammed on the brakes.
Jaccarino “went flying, but he took me with him,” Soler recalled. “When he got up, he punched me in the face.”
Soler was knocked unconscious, and her partner opened the back door to find the 30-year-old prosecutor with both hands wrapped around her neck.
A passing off-duty paramedic saw the commotion and stopped. The man joined Bernardi in prying Jaccarino off the helpless woman and holding him until cops arrived.
Both of Soler’s eyes were blackened, her face was swollen, and Jaccarino’s hand prints remained on her neck after he was finally handcuffed, the EMT recalled.
“He didn’t even show any kind of emotion,” Soler said. “He didn’t show any kind of anger. It was just a blank look. . . . Stone cold, that was him.”
Jaccarino was initially held on charges of second-degree assault, a felony. He was also charged with menacing and harassment.
He was also suspended without pay, but under his misdemeanor plea deal, he could incredibly return to work for the Brooklyn DA.
In a startling twist, Jaccarino has the same lawyer, James Koenig, as convicted cop killer Lamont Pride. Koenig won Jaccarino the sweet deal and also successfully argued that Pride accidentally shot Officer Peter Figoski, sparing the killer a sentence of life without parole.
No decision will be made until Jaccarino finishes what sources say will be a 10-day community service sentence. He will also undergo an alcohol abuse treatment program and appear before the city bar to retain his license.
“We are outraged to hear of what the outcome of this case will be,” said Israel Miranda, president of Local 2507 of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors union.
“He should be disbarred or, at the bare minimum, fired from the DA’s office. What message are you sending to the people of this city?”
Soler missed six weeks of work after the attackand works each shift in fear.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see him,” she said. “I have to overcome that
every day.”
By Joe Kemp AND Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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