(Bloomberg News) William Bryan Jennings, the Morgan Stanley U.S. bond-underwriting chief accused of stabbing a New York cab driver of Middle Eastern descent over a fare, pleaded not guilty to assault and hate-crime charges.
Jennings's lawyer, Eugene J. Riccio, entered the plea on his client's behalf today before Connecticut Superior Court Judge Robert L. Genuario in Stamford. Jennings wore a blue suit, white shirt and patterned tie to the proceeding, which lasted less than a minute. He and Riccio left the courthouse without speaking to reporters and drove away in a pickup truck. His next court date is April 12.
Jennings, 45, is accused of attacking the driver, Mohamed Ammar, on Dec. 22 with a 2 1/2-inch blade and using racial slurs after a 40-mile ride from New York to the banker's Darien, Connecticut, home. The hate-crime count brings the same five-year maximum prison sentence as the assault charge.
Jennings, who had attended a bank holiday party at a boutique hotel in Manhattan before hailing the cab, refused to pay the $204 fare upon arriving in his driveway, the driver said. Jennings said "he did not feel like paying" because he was already home, Ammar, 44, told police. The banker offered to pay $50, he said. Jennings told police Ammar demanded $294 and he offered to pay $160.
Ammar, a native of Egypt, said that after the banker refused to pay, he backed out of the driveway of the $3.4 million home to seek a police officer. Ammar said he had tried to call 911 but was hampered by poor mobile reception in the wealthy Fairfield County suburb.
The banker called him an expletive and said, "I'm going to kill you. You should go back to your country," according to the police report. A fight ensued as they drove through Darien, and Jennings allegedly cut Ammar, police said.
Jennings said the driver cut his hand trying to grab the knife from him, which he said he wielded because he feared he was being abducted, possibly back to the city. Ammar denied he tried to take Jennings back to New York.
The banker, who eventually fled the cab and turned himself in two weeks later after a vacation in Florida, was charged with second-degree assault, theft of services and intimidation by bias or bigotry. Freed on $9,500 bond, he faces as long as 10 years and three months in prison. He was charged Feb. 29.
Pen Pendleton, a spokesman for New York-based Morgan Stanley, said March 2 that Jennings has been put on leave.
Ammar told police that before they left for Connecticut, he showed Jennings the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission's rate book listing the fare at $204. Jennings said they didn't discuss the fare and he assumed the cost would be $125 to $150, which is what Morgan Stanley's car service charged, according to police. He had never taken a yellow cab home before, he said.