A wealthy ad heir who allegedly torched a Jewish man’s Israeli flag at a Columbia University protest pleaded not guilty in Manhattan court Monday — as his attorney had a snarky retort when asked about the case.
James Carlson, 40, and defense lawyer Moira Meltzer-Cohen were asked if they wanted to make a statement after he entered the plea on criminal mischief and other charges.
“Not even a little bit,” Meltzer-Cohen quipped.
The private criminal defense attorney specializes in “legal support and education for social movement groups working toward collective liberation … and other attorneys seeking to learn more about the substance and culture of representing radicals,” according to her firm’s website.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Falk told the courtroom that prosecutors would not be offering Carlson a deal and said there was “extensive evidence” and “extensive video surveillance” in the case against him.
The professional agitator and attorney by trade was then released on his own recognizance.
Carlson is accused of snatching the Israeli flag of a Jewish man from another demonstrator at an April 20 protest — and began burning it with a lighter before a witness pulled it away, court records show.
Carlson additionally participated in an April 30 incident where he unlawfully entered the Ivy League school’s Hamilton Hall and was charged with criminal trespassing, court records show.
While he was being processed by NYPD at 1 Police Plaza, Carlson allegedly kicked and broke a glass panel in a holding cell, the indictment said.
He pleaded not guilty to charges in the incident, according to court records.
“This defendant’s alleged activity went beyond legal and peaceful protest. Committing arson in a crowded protest endangers the safety of others, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated” said District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a press statement.
“We will continue to work closely with the NYPD and local colleges and universities to ensure the safety of students, staff, and community members during any protest or demonstration,” Bragg said.
Carlson has no known links to Columbia, according to the indictment.
He was also among the anti-Israel protesters in January who wreaked havoc on the city by blocking traffic at the Holland Tunnel as well as the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges in a “Shut it Down for Palestine” rally, a source previously said.
His rap sheet dates back to at least 2005, when he was charged in San Francisco for participating in the violent “West Coast Anti-Capitalist Mobilization and March Against the G8,” where protesters cracked a police officer’s skull, nearly killing him, and attempted to set a police cruiser ablaze, according to a City Hall source and news reports.
Carlson was charged at the time with suspicion of attempted lynching, malicious mischief, battery to a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and willful resistance to a police officer that results in serious bodily injury, according to the source.
The charges were dropped in 2007, CNN reported.
He is the heir of the deceased advertising exec Richard “Dick” Tarlow and his wife, Sandy Carlson Tarlow, known as the “public face of Ralph Lauren,” who left behind tens of millions in their estate.
Carlson, who has a child with model Kim Heyrman, bought a 2,893-square-foot, three-story townhouse with four wood-burning fireplaces and a carriage house in Park Slope in 2019 for $2.3 million, according to property records and online listings.
He is among the few people charged in connection with Anti Israel protests at Columbia, after 31 cases were dismissed by the DA’s office in June.
Carlson is due back in court on Dec. 9.
