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Felony Charges Dropped for Woman Who Punched Officer She Thought Was Fake

By Gwynne Hogan | July 27, 2016 3:05pm
 Emily Weber faces misdemeanor assault charges and two years probation.
Emily Weber faces misdemeanor assault charges and two years probation.
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Arrest Records

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A Virginia woman who prosecutors say assaulted a police officer that she and her boyfriend thought was a "fake cop" was indicted on misdemeanor attempted assault charges Wednesday, down from the earlier felony assault charges she first faced.

Emily Weber, 20, of Virginia Beach, who'd been visiting her boyfriend Alexander Telinde, a student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., allegedly punched an officer after calling him a "fake cop."

She was arraigned on attempted assault, resisting arrest and obstructing charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday. She faces two years probation and no jail time, her attorney said.

 Emily Weber and Alexander Telinde, a couple from Virginia, assaulted a transit police officer who was trying to stop them after one jumped a turnstile, according to police and prosecutors.
Emily Weber and Alexander Telinde, a couple from Virginia, assaulted a transit police officer who was trying to stop them after one jumped a turnstile, according to police and prosecutors.
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Weber, the daughter of a Naval Attaché for the U.S. Navy who had been working in the embassy in Russia at the time of incident, was arrested with Telinde on April 12 at the Morgan Avenue L train stop in East Williamsburg after he jumped a turnstile, prosecutors and police charge.

An officer on the platform approached Telinde to confront him about jumping the turnstile and Weber came to his defense, calling the officer a "fake cop," prosecutors said. "I want to see ID," she said, according to a voluntary disclosure form submitted by prosecutors.

"This shield? Anybody can get this shield," her boyfriend Telinde said, before striking the officer with his own nightstick over the head, on his right eye, left shoulder, across the lips and on both knees, according to court records.

Weber punched the officer in the face and tried to run away, prosecutors charged.

Alexander Telinde was arraigned on the top charge of felony assault in the second degree in Supreme Court on June 8. His trial is slated to begin in the fall, according to court records.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Weber, declined to comment, though her private attorney Joshua Stevens raised doubts about the charges his client still faces.

"A 90 pound female," assaulting a law enforcement officer, he said. "Can you imagine that?"

"It was clear that her testimony was strong in the grand jury," he said, though he wouldn't describe what she'd said that had convinced the jury, and those proceedings are private. "The people believed what she said."

Stevens pointed to a picture of the incident that had been posted on Instagram but since removed that showed Weber on her knees and of no apparent threat to the officer on duty.

"I don't think that fits with what they're saying," he said. "It's her weeping and the cops are towering over her."

Both she and Alexander Telinde are due back in court on Sept. 14.