A veteran subway prepare operator left for lifeless after being stabbed 11 occasions inside a Brooklyn station final yr misplaced an opportunity to face off along with his attacker Wednesday when the person refused to indicate up in individual for his sentencing.
Jonathan Davalos, who pleaded responsible in August to the tried homicide of Myran Pollack on the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue station, as an alternative appeared nearly on a display inside a courtroom, forcing his beforehand agreed-upon sentencing of 15 years behind bars to be postponed till Dec. 15.
Pollack, who labored for the MTA for greater than 25 years, lately retired after sustaining extreme accidents final Oct. 8, when he was stabbed within the again, legs and arms when he woke Davalos up on the No. 4 line’s final cease in Brooklyn.
“I was looking forward to seeing him because the last time I saw him, he was above me with a knife,” Pollack mentioned whereas leaning on a cane exterior the Brooklyn courthouse.
For Davalos’s earlier courtroom appearances, Pollack had stayed out of the courtroom. However he confirmed up for the scheduled sentencing Wednesday in hopes of talking on to the 27-year-old Bronx man.
“I wanted to let him know exactly how much pain that I’m going through because of that incident,” he mentioned. “And to this day, I’m still going through the same things over and over again.”
Sources informed THE CITY that Davalos — who was on probation on the time of the assault for a earlier assault on a transit employee in The Bronx — derailed the sentencing by making an attempt to hurt himself earlier than the Wednesday courtroom look.
Jonathan Davalos refused to look in individual at scheduled sentencing for stabbing a transit employee final yr, Oct. 22, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
However after prosecutors and protection legal professionals initially agreed to a digital listening to, the sentencing was then postponed as a result of, below a earlier case regulation, it will have risked the sentencing being overturned.
Pollack and supporters from Transport Staff Native Union 100 and MTA officers who additionally confirmed up for the sentencing had been left disillusioned when State Supreme Courtroom Justice Carolina Holderness postponed the ultimate step within the case.
“Justice for Myron Pollack has not been done, so we have to come back yet again,” mentioned John Chiarello, president of TWU Native 100. “I’m beyond words, I’m really beyond words.”
Pollack, 60, was 4 months from retirement when Davalos attacked him on the prepare after which chased him onto a station platform. In line with the MTA, he was amongst 46 subway employees assaulted in 2024, when assaults in opposition to transit staff fell by greater than 30% from the earlier yr.
“It’s just unacceptable that he would have to go through this type of assault,” mentioned New York Metropolis Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, who was among the many crowd of courtroom supporters. “It is a shame that the system has prolonged it.”
Pollack mentioned the backing from coworkers and transit supervisors was “overwhelming.”
“I know I don’t deserve this type of outpouring,” he mentioned. “But I really appreciate and love them all for coming out to support me.”
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