Fox Christmas tree arson suspect released without bail
The arsonist who allegedly torched the Fox News Christmas tree was freed after his arraignment Wednesday night because his charges were not eligible for bail under new liberal reform laws.
“I didn’t do it!” suspect Craig Tamanaha, 49, claimed to reporters outside Manhattan criminal court after being asked about the early morning arson that caused about $500,000 in damage outside the Midtown building that houses Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Tamanaha, a vagrant with a lengthy rap sheet who was known to police, also went on an incoherent rant outside the courthouse.
He denied the arson and hurled obscenities at reporters before asking them for a cigarette.
“The moms that want to rape their f—ing daughters — they set it on fire,” yelled the man, who had also allegedly exposed himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial last week.
The suspect was hit with a slew of misdemeanor charges — including arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass — for allegedly setting ablaze the 50-foot-tall artificial tree with a piece of cardboard that was on fire.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bayley said at the arraignment that Tamanaha was “not charged with a bail-eligible offense.”
Judge Marisol Martinez Alonso granted Tamanaha a supervised release at the request of prosecutors.
For a judge to set bail, Tamanaha would have to be charged with at least third-degree felony arson, criminal defense lawyer Mark Bederow told Fox News.
Under New York law, arson is only a felony if the suspect tries to harm a person or commits a hate crime, he clarified.
Two open warrants for desk appearance tickets were also vacated by the judge.
Tamanaha was told to return to court on Jan. 4 and seemed confused about the order.
“Today I have to be here?,” Tamanaha responded.
The suspect has a history of destructive stunts, is homeless and abuses drugs, his father told The Post earlier Wednesday.
“Oh, he’s a nut. I can’t control him,” said Richard Tamanaha of Hawaii. “Mentally, he’s not all there.”
Outgoing NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tamanaha was already known to cops.
“It’s an individual that’s known to us — he has a series of low-level arrests and drug arrests,” the top cop said on WPIX Wednesday.
“He was issued some earlier this year — some appearance tickets and didn’t come back to court, which unfortunately is something we see all too often. He also has some low-level arrests out of state — I believe it’s Texas.”
Last week, Tamanaha also allegedly exposed himself to a group of reporters outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial in Manhattan, a photographer told The Post.
He was captured on camera moments after pulling down his pants to show his privates on the first day of the high-profile trial of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, said Jeenah Moon, a freelance journalist.
“I saw him walking around the square where media parks. He had a little weird behavior,” said Moon, who works for multiple outlets including Reuters. “He exposed himself to a female photographer and other people.”
Since New York’s lenient bail reform went into effect, crime in the Big Apple has risen.
Shea recently described “the resulting crime that has flowed from disastrous bail reform law” as “insanity.”
