Defendant in knife attack was released without bail in more than a dozen other pending criminal cases, including prior weapons charges

The Riverhead man charged with slashing the face of a man on Railroad Avenue Thursday night had been freed without bail on a felony weapons possession charge in May and is currently facing more than a dozen other criminal charges, including prior weapons and menacing charges in Riverhead Justice Court dating back to 2008.

Anthony W. Smith, 56. is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail in the Suffolk County jail on first-degree assault, weapons possession and other charges stemming from the Sept. 25 knife attack on a 32-year-old Hispanic man outside a Railroad Avenue bodega.

The day before the slashing, Smith was in Riverhead Justice Court on a pending felony weapons charge in a previous arrest for possession of a “gravity knife” on Railroad Avenue on April 26. Smith, who had prior felony convictions, was charged on May 7 with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a class D felony. Though he was remanded without bail at his arraignment, Smith was later released on his own recognizance when he appeared in court again on May 12.

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said that won’t happen again, according to Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, who called Spota Friday to ask that prosecutors seek substantial bail in the new case. Spota assured him he would, Walter said.

“I asked him to do everything he can to make sure this guy is not back on Riverhead streets,” Walter said.

Robert Clifford, a spokesman for Spota said Friday Smith’s case would be transferred to the major crimes bureau in the district attorney’s office, which would seek to have a grand jury indict Smith in the incident.

The district attorney’s office requested cash bail of $250,000 at Smith’s arraignment in Riverhead Justice Court Friday morning, citing Smith’s extensive criminal history and the recovery of the bloody knife used in the assault. The court ordered bail set at $100,000 cash and $200,000 bond. Smith is due back in court on Sept. 30.

Smith has two prior felony convictions, according to state corrections department records posted online: a weapons possession charge in 1979, for which he served 11 years in state prison; and a felony assault charge in 2002, for which he served 6 years upstate.

He has since been arrested numerous times by Riverhead Town Police and currently has the following open charges pending against him in Riverhead Town Justice Court, in addition to the new ones filed following Thursday night’s incident, which sent Daniel Pansan-Pirrion, of Riverhead, to Peconic Bay Medical Center with a knife wound to his face:

• public urination (arrested June 24, 2014);
• possession of an open alcohol container (arrested June 8, 2014);
• criminal possession of weapon in the third degree (arrested May 7, 2014);
• possession of an open alcohol container (arrested April 26, 2014);
• harassment in the second degree (arrested April 20, 2012);
• possession of an open alcohol container (arrested March 20, 2012);
• criminal mischief in the fourth degree (arrested Nov. 7, 2011);
• disorderly conduct (arrested Nov. 3, 2011);
• public urination (arrested May 20, 2011);
• criminal mischief (arrested March 14, 2011);
• public urination, possession of an open alcohol container (arrested March 18, 2011);
• criminal mischief in the fourth degree, harassment in the second degree (Feb. 7, 2010);
• criminal mischief in the second degree, (July 2, 2008); and
• criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, menacing in the second degree (two counts) and criminal mischief in the fourth degree (July 1, 2008).

Smith was released on his own recognizance in all of the prior pending cases.

“This man should not be released,” Walter said. “No judge in Suffolk should ROR this guy,” he said, using the shorthand term for a release without bail. “He’s a danger.”

In addition to his criminal history, Smith and the Town of Riverhead were also involved in a six-year civil lawsuit in federal district court. In 1996, Smith sued the town and two of its police officers for wrongful arrest, use of excessive force, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, conspiracy and other claims, seeking $2.4 million in damages. He claimed in his federal lawsuit that he was arrested on Feb. 1, 1995 for exercising his right to freedom of speech and association and that he was arrested without probable cause.

The case went to trial in June 2012, but the court declared a mistrial on the same day proceedings were begun, according to online records, which do not describe the reason for the mistrial. A few days later, the case was settled for $350,000.

Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.