Woman flees NYC after cabbie gropes her and is let off hook by DA Bragg — ‘I was so scared he was gonna … kill me’
He’s hell on wheels.
An Algerian immigrant NYC cabbie driving without a partition or a camera allegedly assaulted two women in the back of his yellow taxi in separate incidents — and is still on the road, thanks to soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, according to sources and court documents.
One victim, Maile Bartow, 23, climbed into Bellebia’s yellow cab minivan around 2 a.m. on Nov. 10, 2024 to head home after a night on the town with friends, and said the hack touched her leg twice, ignoring her pleas for him to stop before groping her genitals, according to a lawsuit.
Bartow, who had always dreamed of living in Gotham and moved to the city in August after a stint in Nashville, left the Big Apple for good because of her NYC nightmare.
About a month later, on Dec. 12, 2024, Bellebia picked up a 2 a.m. fare, allegedly touching that woman’s leg throughout the ride and trying to remove the 33-year-old victim’s underwear, a law enforcement source told The Post.
He was arrested Dec. 19, 2024 and charged in both cases
“Oh my God,” Bartow gasped when she learned of the other alleged victim from The Post.
In Bartow’s case, Bellebia was facing misdemeanor charges of forcible touching and sexual abuse and could have faced a sentence from probation to a year in jail.
Instead, he pleaded guilty in March to disorderly conduct, a mere violation, and was set free on a conditional discharge — meaning he was get no jail time as long as he stayed out of trouble, Bartow said Bragg’s office left her in the dark about the slap on the wrist.
The prosecutor “never told me that he pled guilty to a lesser charge,” Bartow said. “The only reason I was even informed was because I reached out three times — two of those were not returned..