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"Hippie" Allegedly Caught With Explosive Powder Previously Stabbed A Bouncer, Stole His Pizza
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 4, 2013
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 4, 2013
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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Aaron Greene,
the 31-year-old Harvard grad
who was arrested on Saturday morning with his pregnant girlfriend for allegedly possessing explosive powder and shotguns, previously stabbed a bouncer in 2005 with an eleven-inch butcher knife and served eight months in jail. The man he stabbed says that the altercation began after Greene stole his slice of pizza and stalked him through the Lower East Side—and soon after the stabbing he predicted Greene was more dangerous than authorities believed at the time. "I told the District Attorney that one of these days, he's gonna shoot up a schoolyard or blow up a federal building," the bouncer says. "But watch—he's gonna skate on these new charges, he's gonna get off because of his family."
The 44-year-old bouncer agreed to speak to us on the condition that we refer to him only by his initials, A.H., explaining that "I put that five-year ordeal behind me, and I don't need the Greene family coming after me." He said that while he was in the hospital recovering from the stab wound, he was visited by a friend who was dating Greene's sister, Claire. "We were friends at the time," recalls A.H., "but he seemed nervous, and he told me, 'Aaron does stuff like this all the time and he always gets away with it.' "
A.H. was working at Max Fish on St. Patrick's Day in 2005 when he first met Greene, who was sitting in a booth with a date. "My friend had gone out and gotten me a few slices of pizza for dinner, and he put it down on the table and Aaron said, 'Which one is mine?' " the bouncer said. "I told him, 'Whichever one you're paying for,' and we both laughed. The vibe was calm. But after he gets up to leave the bar, my friend noticed that my slice was gone."
"So I went up to him and asked him, 'Did you steal my dinner?' And he reluctantly ends up taking the pizza out of his coat sleeve, and hands it to me," A.H. said. "That's when I told him that he had to leave because he stole my food." Then, a regular patron who was sitting next to Greene and his date told the bouncer he was missing his Walkman. "So I find them outside, and he agreed to let me give him a light pat-down." The bouncer found what appeared to be a "Folgers can full of change and dollar bills—like someone's tip jar, but no Walkman." A crowd had gathered, and Greene got into an altercation with another patron, but the group dissolved and the night proceeded without incident.
Max Fish (Flickr User Vivienne Gucwa)
According to A.H., Greene's date later testified to a grand jury that Greene left the bar enraged, making threats against him as the two walked back to Greene's family's Soho apartment. Here Greene grabbed a butcher knife and left to go back to the bar to confront the bouncer. When his date tried to stop him, he cut her hand.
After closing time, A.H and two friends started walking west to the subway at around 4:30 a.m. "I then see this silhouette leaning against Katz's with one hand in his pocket, and I saw his pony tail, and I thought, 'Oh, it's the same guy from tonight.' " The bouncer says that Greene was "glassy-eyed," and continued following the group for 30 minutes, even as they attempted to lose him, telling Greene to stop following them at least twice.
Eventually the bouncer ended up confronting Greene on 1st Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery. "I told him to leave us alone. And as he pulled the hand out of his pocket I slapped him in the face, and then he whipped out something and plunged it into my side." A.H. said he was in shock. "When I looked down and saw the feathers coming out of my jacket, I knew it was a knife." Despite his deep stab wound, A.H. said that he then chased Greene for several blocks into Soho while on the phone with 911. "The cops came with the ambulance, and I pointed out to them who stabbed me, he was only a half-block away, but they just asked to see my ID and took me to the hospital."
The bouncer said doctors told him that the only reason he survived was because the knife entered his body at an oblique angle, and missed all of his vital organs. "I left the ICU after two days. I knew that room was thousands of dollars a night and I wasn't insured. The doctors thought I was crazy, but they showed someone how to dress my wound and let me leave."
Several days later, Greene turned himself in to the 9th precinct with his mother and father. A.H. went down to identify him. "He had time to lawyer up, cut his hair shorter, clean himself up," A.H. recalls. "When I last saw him he looked a notch above homeless, but my friend said he had just gotten back from his other home in Nyack." For weeks, the bouncer said that a private investigator for the family began asking his friends and colleagues about him. "He'd come around the bar and flash a badge, asking for me by a nickname which I don't even use, so my friends were suspicious." A.H. says they didn't find anything. "I've never even been arrested to this day, they didn't have anything on me they could use."
According to court records, Greene pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, and served less than a year in jail. In a civil suit, Greene argued self-defense, and lost. Right before the jury trial commenced, Greene filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in an attempt to make the judgment dischargeable. But he ended up having to pay the judgement after a bankruptcy judge ruled that "Greene's self-defense argument is without merit."
A.H., a native Manhattanite who now lives on the West Coast and works in music production, expressed concern at recent comments made by NYPD sources that seemed to dismiss Greene and his girlfriend, Morgan Gliedman, as "well-to-do junkies."
"I was interviewed by a pair of detectives after the stabbing who had visited Aaron's parents at their apartment," the bouncer says, referring to the Greene family's former flat at 45 Crosby Street, which sold for $2.7 million in 2010. Greene's father, Jeff, is the president of architectural restoration firm Evergreene Architectural Arts, which has worked on the U.S. Capitol, the Metropolitan Opera House, and the Eldridge Street Synagogue. (The younger Greene is seen here painting a weathervane in Nantucket for his father's company.) "The detectives told me, 'Oh, he seems like a rich kid, a good kid except when he does a little drugs.' They were clearly impressed by the place."
"What's the old saying, if you're poor, you're crazy, but if you're rich you're eccentric?" A.H. said. "Well, this is like, if you're a certain color, you're a terrorist, but if you're white, you're a 'sportsman,' or outdoorsman, or whatever [Greene] told the Post."
Greene is scheduled to appear in court today. His attorney, Lisa Pelosi, declined to talk about the charges her client is currently facing, or the 2005 stabbing. "I have no comment for you, I'll see you in court."
[UPDATE] This article originally referred to Greene as a "Harvard grad." That is incorrect. Read our correction here.
Tagged
aaron greene
Lower East Side
morgan gliedman
stabbing
west village
original
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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