Michael Enright, the aspiring filmmaker charged with slashing a New York City cab driver back in August because he was a Muslim, will be released on $500,000 bail, New York Daily New reports.
In an apparent drunken haze, the 21-year-old Enright, a student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, allegedly boarded a cab, asked the driver about his religion and proceeded to stab the driver while allegedly yelling “This is a checkpoint, this is checkpoint, motherf**ker, I have to put you down.” Enright had been on a trip to Afghanistan, where he was embedded with a Marine Unit.
He later accused New York City police officers of discriminating against him because he is Irish Catholic, and his lawyer later blamed alcoholism and post traumatic stress disorder for the incident. Friends told TPM that Enright had a history of alcohol abuse.
Supreme Court Judge Richard Carruthers signed off on the bail, allowing Enright’s mother to put her Brewster, NY home down as collateral, the newspaper reported.
“The defendant is not to go to any bar or club that serves alcoholic beverages,” Carruthers said. Enright was also subjected to an 8 p.m. curfew and to undergo alcohol rehab and see a mental health professional, according to the Daily News. He cannot travel outside of New York, will have to surrender his passport, and will have to wear an electric monitoring device, said the newspaper.
The Justice Department said it was investigating the Enright incident alongside local authorities.
