Judge who freed robber shows ‘lack of care for public safety,’ NYC cop says

The “Burberry Bandit” has struck again — busted in five more bank heists this week after a decade of heists — but was quickly sprung by a notorious New York City judge who shouldn’t have been presiding over the case in the first place, The Post has learned.

Cornell Neilly, 35, earned his moniker because of his past fondness for wearing dapper plaid duds during his capers at NYC and upstate banks. 

He was busted yet again Monday for allegedly hitting five banks between Aug. 16 and Sept. 13, from Greenwich Village to Central Park South, police said. He used notes that demanded cash in each case.

But Judge Jeffrey Gershuny — a 2019 appointee of former Mayor Bill de Blasio — ignored prosecutors’ request for $50,000 cash bail or $150,000 bond – and let him go on supervised release. This despite Neilly being on parole and having 34 prior bank robbery arrests.

“The fact that the bail. . . was declined by this judge is negligent on the judge’s part,” said an NYPD officer who asked to remain anonymous. “It shows a real lack of care for public safety.

“At what point does he keep getting out and gets desperate and brings a gun to a robbery instead of a note and kills somebody?”

Gershuny should not have been in a position to make the decision at all.

The 49-year-old jurist was demoted to hearing only misdemeanor cases after the Post revealed in August that he had whipped out his own gun on the bench during a hearing in a weapons case in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

In the bizarre courtroom incident, the judge asked a cop on the stand to prove how he could have known a suspect was hiding a gun in a bag, as the jurist pulled out his own weapon for an unscripted demonstration.

As a result, he had his pay slashed and was moved to night court in Manhattan Criminal Court, law enforcement sources said.

A police source with more than 20 years on the job said Gershuny is “soft on crime. Anytime the DA asks for a lot of bail this guy lets them go. He should be removed from the bench.”

The Post’s question about why the judge wound up hearing a felony bank robbery case went unanswered by Al Baker, director of communications at the NYS Office of Court Administration, who also refused to comment on Neilly’s release.

“The court system does not comment on individual bail determinations, whether in Criminal Court or in Superior Court,” Baker said, adding, “the vast majority of bail decisions turn on the court’s discretionary weighing of a broad range of factors” to determine “the defendant’s risk of flight…”

Neilly’s return to knocking off banks started around 11 a.m. on Aug. 16 at the Chase Bank at 27th Street and Seventh Avenue in Midtown, cops said.

This time, he was captured on surveillance looking downright pedestrian in a black baseball cap and black hoodie with “all sorts of random words and symbols on it,” a police source said.

Neilly allegedly handed the teller a note that said “This is a robbery. I want $3,500 now.” The teller handed him $1,000, according to a criminal complaint.

He asked for the same amount on Aug. 25 at the Chase Bank on Park Avenue and East 26th Street in Midtown and walked out with $716, cops said. This time, he was wearing a black baseball cap and white T-shirt, police sources said.

On Sept. 9, he walked into a Chase Bank in Midtown wearing a similar outfit and passed a teller a note demanding even more money: “This is a robbery. Give me $4,500 cash,” according to the criminal complaint. He took off empty handed after the teller hit the alarm.

Three days later, at 9:30 a.m., he walked into the Chase Bank on West Fourth Street in the West Village and allegedly handed a teller a note demanding $3,500. This time, he was wearing a white T-shirt and a Baltimore Orioles cap, police sources said.

The next day, around 1 p.m., he strolled into a Chelsea Chase Bank wearing a gray sweatsuit and the Orioles cap and handed the teller a note that read: “This is a robbery. I want all large bills. Now. This is real.” The teller hit the bank’s silent alarm and Neilly fled empty handed.

He was arrested by the NYPD on Monday at his grandmother’s apartment on the Upper West Side, and charged with five counts of felony robbery, cops said.

He was hit with state charges instead of federal bank robbery charges because he used no weapon and made off with less than $2,000.

Neilly was caught on bank surveillance cameras donning the designer Burberry duds for two of 14 alleged heists during a pattern that started in April 2012 and stretched from Harlem to Battery Park, netting him more than $8,500, police sources said.

He was slapped with 26 months behind bars and five years of supervised release after pleading guilty in 2021 to a single bank robbery charge for a caper that netted him $7,600.

He was let out on supervised release — so was expected to check in with a case manager — in May 2024 and is on federal probation until May 6, 2027, state records show.

Neilly has also been arrested for allegedly slinging dope, cops said.

Police saw him taking money in exchange for a small package on May 23 and found 40 OxyContin pills, seven bags of crack cocaine and one baggie of speed on him, according to a criminal complaint from the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutors Office. That followed a Jan. 8 arrest for selling coke to an undercover cop six different times.

Neilly’s court appointed defense lawyer didn’t return a message seeking comment Friday.