One of the three freed “Vieques Four” was turned away yesterday from the federal prison where he spent 40 days after he tried to get back in to visit the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“I spent 40 days of my life trying to get out of jail, I’m out one day, I try to get into jail, and I failed at that,” Bronx Democratic leader Roberto Ramirez told reporters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
“I was so close, I could smell the cell,” before officials yanked him back and booted him out, said Ramirez, who was freed with Assemblyman Jose Rivera and City Councilman Adolfo Carrion Friday.
“I’m the only person in New York that can’t break into prison.”
Ramirez, who has joined Sharpton’s legal team, was trying to visit the still-jailed reverend with some of his other lawyers and supporters, including Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
The others were allowed in to see Sharpton, who’s serving a 90-day sentence and won’t be released until mid-August. The four were arrested during protests against the Navy bombing tests on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
“Fights get won over a long time, never over a short period of time,” said Ramirez, who’s also a key adviser to Ferrer’s mayoral campaign, adding he’ll fight being denied access to Sharpton.
“I think the warden’s going to be pleased to hear from me, but it won’t be [as a prisoner]. It will be [as] attorney-at-law.”
Rivera and Carrion didn’t try to get into the prison, instead joining the 150 protesters outside.