NYC hotel cab dispatcher dies days after knockout punch, attacker cut loose thanks to loophole

A cab dispatcher died days after an enraged driver slugged him outside a Midtown hotel last month – and the alleged attacker was cut loose thanks to a legal loophole, according to cops and sources. 

Efrain Patino Guerra, 53, was working at a cab stand outside the Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square on West 47th Street near Seventh Avenue around 1:15 p.m. on June 17 when motorist Jaime Rosario, 54, flew into a rage, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Tuesday.

As Guerra was assigning fares as hotel guests walked out, he skipped one of the drivers, who went berserk and confronted the dispatcher, according to Kenny.

“He’s very very much bigger than Mr. Patino, and at some point, he sucker-punches him square in the face,” Kenny said. “You can see from the video he’s clearly knocked unconscious — while he’s standing up, falls back and hits his head on the concrete.”

Patino Guerra was unable to move until first responders rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition – and spent some time in a coma, according to Kenny and a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court against Rosario. 

During his stay at the hospital, Patino Guerra went into cardiac arrest and was “kind of dead for about seven minutes,” before he was revived, the police official said.  

He ultimately succumbed to his injuries on June 27, cops said. 

Three days earlier, the NYPD had busted Rosario and charged him with second-degree assault, according to Kenny. 

But that charge was downgraded in court to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor – because a felony rap requires intent to cause serious physical injury or the use of a weapon, law enforcement sources said. 

Neither of those conditions could be established, since Rosario allegedly dealt Patino Guerra a single blow to the face, according to the sources. 

Judge Jonathan Svetkey granted Rosario supervised release, since the misdemeanor charge is not bail-eligible – and has not been since the statewide bail reforms enacted in 2020.

Rosario is next scheduled to appear in court on July 18, records show. 

It remained unclear Wednesday whether Rosario could face upgraded charges as the investigation is ongoing.

In a similar Brooklyn case back in March, a tow truck driver accused in a fatal attack on a 61-year-old man whose car he was impounding was cut loose because of the same loophole in so-called one-punch homicide cases. 

Kevon M. Johnson, 30, allegedly delivered a single punch that sent Carlyle Thomas, 61, barreling into the pavement where he fatally struck his head during an argument that broke out over a $10 parking spot at a Brownsville Shell gas station, authorities said at the time.

Johnson was granted supervised release at his arraignment on a charge of third-degree assault, prosecutors said then.

“The law allows only for charges relating to the punch and there is no way to prove intent to cause his death or any other serious injury,” a law enforcement source told The Post of that case.