A career criminal who was cut loose in May after attacking an unsuspecting woman on a Brooklyn subway car has been arrested three times since then — and his alleged crimes include weapon possession, arson and drug possession, The Post has learned.
Michael Crosland, 68, has a lengthy rap sheet of more than two dozen arrests, sources told The Post after Crosland was collared for punching and kicking a 39-year-old woman who was headed to the gym on a Q train at the Stillwell Avenue station on Sunday, May 5.
Authorities laced him with a litany of charges for the May 5 beatdown, including third-degree assault, third-degree attempted assault, two counts of attempted arson and two counts of disorderly conduct — all of which are misdemeanors.
But he was back on the streets the next day, thanks to the Empire State’s lax bail laws — and seems to have picked up exactly where he left off.
On May 21, Crosland was busted for selling crack to an undercover cop in Coney Island, according to court documents.
He was hit with three drug charges, then cut loose again.
Just five days later, on May 26, Crosland was busted with a blade in a subway station on 148th Street in Harlem after he started arguing with employees from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
He told the transit worker to “kiss my ass,” then pulled out the knife, court documents said.
Cops collared him with his blade in-hand after he passed out on a bench.
Finally, police arrested him for criminal mischief June 3 at a Brooklyn subway station, where he was allegedly starting fires by flicking lit cigarettes into garbage cans near and on perched on a closed subway platform, court records said.
This earned him a handful of charges, including criminal mischief, arson and trespassing.
Crosland was cut loose yet again during his Monday arraignment in Brooklyn — with the judge giving the prolific perp supervised released because none of his charges are bail eligible, sources told The Post.
In the May 5 assault, Crosland allegedly punched and kicked the unidentified victim in the shoulder several times, then kicked her in the stomach, according to the complaint.
Afterward, he lit some papers on fire inside the subway car before igniting another blaze in a platform trash can, the document said.
The victim told The Post that Crosland came out of nowhere that morning and screamed, “Hey, get the f–k out.”
But she and another woman on the train thought he was joking.
“After a couple times, he said, ‘Get the f–k out of here,’ we thought he was just trying to play around, you know? So we ignored him,” the victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.
“And then he started throwing kicks. Yeah, he was kicking me in the belly. He was throwing kicks and punches. Like three kicks, four kicks, and I’m looking at the lady like, Hey, this is serious, you know? He’s not playing.”
The victim, who lives in Brighton Beach, said at the time she’ll likely forgo the train at Stillwell station because she doesn’t want to cross paths with her assailant again.
“There’s a possibility he’s gonna remember me,” she said.
