From The New York Daily News…
McDonald’s beatdown cashier cleared after 11 days of grand jury testimony
Case tossed against Rayon McIntosh despite brutal cellphone video that shows Greenwich Village behind-the-counter brawl
By Nancy Dillon & Melissa Grace, New York Daily News
The McDonald’s cashier arrested for his supersized smackdown of two women who came around his counter to pick a fight has been cleared of all charges.
Rayon McIntosh, 31, was expected to be released from Rikers Friday night.
Prosecutors said a grand jury heard testimony for 11 days and voted to toss the case.
“We asked that Mr. McIntosh be released,” Assistant District Attorney Jaime Hickey-Mendoza said.
A whoop of “Hallelujah!” was heard in the courtroom after the announcement. A handful of relatives were present to hear the good news.
“They were trying to turn him into a monster, my son,” mom Maureen Lucas, a registered nurse from Rockland County, said as she sobbed with relief.
Her ex-con son, who served about a decade on a manslaughter rap, was getting his life back on track when the two foul-mouthed women threatened him, she said.
“If he didn’t have that record, they would never have arrested him,” Lucas said.
McIntosh has an 11-year-old daughter and took a fast-food job in an effort to get his life back on track, stepsister Jacara McIntosh said.
“No 31-year-old wants to work at McDonald’s making $7.25 an hour but he did it,” she said.
McIntosh said in an exclusive jailhouse interview with the Daily News that his Oct. 13 shift at the Greenwich Village fast food joint was peaceful until Denise Darbeau and Rachel Edwards, both 24, attempted to pay their check with a $50 bill.
He said the women flew into a rage when he checked to see if the note was genuine, as required by store policy.
“She started saying nasty things to me,” McIntosh said while stuck at Rikers Oct. 21. “She said, ‘Oh, you think my s-t is fake? …She started saying, ‘Suck my d--k.’ She called my mother a whore.”
He said one woman spat at him and both jumped the counter.
“I was being attacked by aggressive people I didn’t know,” he said. “I was just defending myself. They came in and went crazy on me.”
Video surveillance footage caught McIntosh grabbing a metal bar used to clean grills and bashing the women.
He was tossed in jail on assault and weapons charges. The women are facing charges of criminal trespassing, menacing and disorderly conduct.
A grand jury has yet to vote on the women’s case, a source told The News.
McIntosh’s defense lawyer said his client feared for his life.
“He didn’t know if they had a weapon,” lawyer Theodore Herlich said Friday. “They were saying, ‘We’re going to f--k you up.’ He thought they were saying, ‘We’re going to cut you up.’ I think the grand jury had a lot of sympathy for him based on the video, based on how the women were behaving.”
“He was at work. He wasn't looking for trouble,” Herlich said.
