Kid Rock has become one of the top donors to the Daniel Penny defense fund after the former U.S. Marine was charged in the New York City subway chokehold death of homeless man Jordan Neely.
The GiveSendGo fundraiser had surged to $2,412,744 in donations as of Tuesday morning with the help of the musician, who gave $5,000 and a free character reference for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg along the way.
“Mr. Penny is a hero. Alvin Bragg is a POS. Kid Rock,” his message reads.
A representative for the rock music icon confirmed he was behind the donation and the words, Fox News reports.
Kid Rock, 52, whose given name is Robert Ritchie, wasn’t the only big-name donor, the Fox News report details.
Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 37, gifted $10,000 out of his own pocket.
WATCH: Angry Jordan Neely Protesters Flood the Streets, Clash with NYPD
Ben Von Klemperer via StoryfulThe Ohio resident said Neely should have been behind bars or in a mental institution and “not free to terrorize his fellow citizens.”
“You have an abandonment of the rule of law,” he told Fox News Digital. “Then someone who tries to assist and protect people, based on the current facts we have … is now being prosecuted. That represents a perversion of how the system is supposed to work.”
As of Monday morning, more than 42,000 people had donated to the campaign on the Christian crowdfunding site and the donations kept rolling in, as Breitbart News reported.
According to the page, it was created by the law firm Raiser & Kenniff, P.C., and the monies are to cover legal fees “from any criminal charges filed and any future civil lawsuits that may arise, as well as expenses related to his defense.”
Thomas Kenniff, a lawyer for Penny, said he didn’t mean to harm Neely earlier this month and is dealing with the situation with the “integrity and honor that is characteristic of who he is and characteristic of his honorable service in the United States Marine Corps.”
Demonstrators hold banners on Friday in Washington Square Park in New York, USA on May 5, 2023. Charges were called against the former U.S. Marine who choked a homeless man, Jordan Neely to death on the subway. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
Daniel Penny, center, is walked by New York Police Department detectives out of the 5th Precinct on Friday, May 12, 2023, in New York. (Jeenah Moon/AP)
AP reports a second-degree manslaughter conviction in New York requires a jury to find that a person engaged in reckless conduct that created an unjustifiable risk of death, consciously disregarded that risk and acted in a way that grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would act in a similar situation.
If Penny is convicted he faces up to 15 years in prison.
The two other men who wrestled Neely to the ground were not charged.
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