The word came down in a hushed Manhattan courtroom on Friday. At 4:30 p.m. prosecutors announced to the media that a NY grand jury cleared ex-McDonald’s cashier Rayon McIntosh of all felony assault charges connected with the savage beating of two female customers that was caught on tape.
“I’m just glad to be home,” McIntosh, 31, told DNAinfo after being released from Rikers Island Friday night. “I feel elated, I feel splendid.”
The case was a flash point for angry Americans who have grown wary of the national media portraying criminals as victims in cases such as this.
McIntosh, who served 11 years in prison for manslaughter, was fired from his job after the incident took place at a Greenwich Village McDonald’s in July. He spent the next seven weeks in a Rikers Island jail cell praying and awaiting his fate.
“We were begging them to get security,” McIntosh told DNAinfo.com by phone early Saturday morning. “The McDonald’s itself is a problematic store. It has a high, concentrated number of people every day. “In the Village, it’s crazy.”
The restaurant’s owner, Carmen Paulino, told DNAinfo that she hired security to patrol the restaurant every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. After the incident, which occurred early on a Thursday morning, she hired additional security for Wednesday nights as well.
But police sources told DNAinfo after the incident that McDonald’s management chose not to hire off-duty NYPD officers to patrol the restaurant because it “wasn’t in their financial interest.”
One of the women, Denise Darbeau, suffered a skull fracture. She is seen above entering court to face trespassing charges after the incident. The other woman, Rachel Edwards, received a deep laceration on her arm.
McIntosh told DNAinfo that his next step will be to hire an attorney to take “civil action” against the restaurant. He added that he would never work in the fast-food industry again.
McIntosh acknowledged the overwhelming support he received from members of the public who collected funds to help pay his defense. “I want to thank the grand jury and my family for being there, and all the people who supported me across the state of New York,” he said.
