RE-BEAT OFFENDER

Arrested 42 times, city does nothing to help or stop him

Alexander Wright (upper right) was charged with a hate crime for punching an Asian woman, but was back on the streets to allegedly beat MTA cleaner Anthony Nelson. Rarely is the seemingly mentally ill Wright ever treated or locked up.

A man accused of pummeling a hero Bronx subway cleaner last week has been arrested a staggering 42 times — including for a hate crime that already made him a revolving-door-justice poster boy, The Post has learned.

Suspect Alexander Wright, 49, is currently behind bars on a measly $5,000 bail, half of what Bronx prosecutors sought for his alleged vicious attack on the subway-station worker, who was trying to stop the accused assailant from harassing straphangers.

Wright allegedly beat MTA employee Anthony Nelson, 35, at around 8:40 a.m. last Thursday, leaving the victim hospitalized with injuries including a broken collarbone and dislocated nose.

The horrific assault was just the latest in a long list of crimes attributed to Wright — from a random slugging targeting an Asian woman in Chinatown to throwing scalding hot coffee on two traffic agents in Midtown last year.

“If you look at his history, you’ll throw up,’’ Robert Kelley, vice president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, told The Post Tuesday.

“The system has let society down 40 times,” Kelley said. “At the end of the day, these are all similar cases of assault.”

‘Menace to society’

The victim’s angry mother, Lisa Nelson, called Wright “a menace to society.”

“This man Alexander Wright should not be walking the streets,” said Lisa Nelson, who appeared at a union rally Tuesday outside Bronx Criminal Court on behalf of her son.

“I hope these politicians and these judges give him the max that he deserves and do not let him walk free.”

In June 2021, Wright was busted for allegedly punching a 55year-old Asian woman in lower Manhattan in a caught-on-video attack. A month earlier, he was accused of tossing scalding coffee on two traffic agents in Manhattan, triggering an assault rap.

When taken into custody over the attack on the woman, Wright was sent to Bellevue Hospital for

a psych evaluation. But it was not clear when or why he was freed after that incident or after the scalding-beverage attack.

Other charges lodged last year against the alleged repeat offender included more cases involving second-degree assault, harassment and felony criminal mischief, police said.

He also was previously accused of other assaults, disorderly conduct, petit larceny and criminal possession of a controlled substance for allegedly carrying synthetic marijuana, cops and police sources said.

The suspect — who cops said lives at a homeless shelter on Wards Island and goes by the nickname “Disney” — had previously been reported to authorities three times as an emotionally disturbed person.

As his alleged career-criminal past came to light last year, thenNYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea seethed on NY1, “What are we doing in society when we are releasing these people right back onto the streets? It’s putting New Yorkers at risk.”

Wright briefly appeared in Bronx Criminal Court Tuesday in the attack on Nelson, but the hearing was adjourned to Friday.

He faces raps of felony assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree.

The suspect remains behind bars on bail set in the case at $5,000 cash, $5,000 bond or the much less stringent $5,000 partially secured bond, officials said.

Prosecutors had asked that bail be set at $10,000 cash, $30,000 bond or $30,000 bond partially secured at 10%, a DA rep said.

Judge Michael Hartofilis set the lower bail.

Anthony Nelson’s mother cried Tuesday while urging authorities to throw the book at Wright.

She noted that her son was once hailed at Madison Square Garden by the Knicks as a “pandemic hero” for his continued work during COVID.

“My son did not deserve this,” Lisa Nelson said. “He’s a brother, he’s an uncle, he’s a son, he’s a father . . . This is not right.

“Please, please, please let justice be served for Anthony Nelson and all the people that this man has hurt.”

Nelson’s sister, Nashia Nelson, 33, told The Post her sibling “is in a lot of pain today.”

“I’ve never in 33 years seen my brother like that — broken nose, his right-side collarbone is broken.

“I mean it’s really devastating, it makes us extremely scared,” she said.

Demand for higher bail

The TWU’s Kelley added, “We need to up this bail . . . We’re tired of [emotionally disturbed people] getting amnesty. Our members are not safe out here.”

The MTA described Nelson in a statement as a “model employee’’ while also urging “the Bronx district attorney to prosecute this unprovoked crime to the fullest extent.”

“Someone with dozens of priors should not be free to harass subway riders and brutally attack the employees who make this city move,” the transit agency said.