Chokehold victim Jordan Neely’s uncle arrested again on theft charges in NYC
The career pickpocket uncle of slain Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely was arrested for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday, according to police.
Christopher Neely, 44, was booked at the NYPD’s 19th Precinct stationhouse in Lenox Hill on multiple counts of grand larceny stemming from three separate Manhattan heists since August last year, cops said.
Most recently, Neely snatched a designer Chanel purse valued at $15,000 from off a woman’s chair inside a Church St. eatery between White and Walker Sts. around 8:23 p.m. on May 18, cops said.
He’s also accused of racking up thousands of dollars in bogus charges on stolen credit cards, including plastic he nabbed from a woman’s purse inside an E. 82nd St. diner between Third and Lexington Aves. at 5 p.m. on April 27, according to police.
Detectives also connected Christopher Neely to the $8,958 in fraudulent charges an Astor Place resident spotted on their credit card bill on Aug. 19.
Neely’s Wednesday arrest follows a May 23 run-in with law enforcement in which an NYPD pickpocket team identified him as a suspect wanted for a string of robberies.
He ducked into the subway to evade cops, jumping a turnstile before grappling with officers in an effort to evade arrest, according to police sources.
Cops have previously hit Neely with charges including rape, robbery and burglary, although most of his two-dozen priors are theft related, cops said.
The suspect’s 30-year-old homeless nephew, Jordan Neely, was killed on an F train in Manhattan after Marine veteran Daniel Penny, 24, placed him in a chokehold on May 1.
Penny, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter and released on $100,000 bond, claimed in a statement that he was protecting himself and other straphangers from the Michael Jackson impersonator.
