New York judge warns robber accused of robbing seven-year-old boy and slapping his mother

A Bronx judge warned the violent robber accused of robbing a 7-year-old boy and slapping his mother that she was “so close to going to Rikers Island immediately” after putting her on supervised release , a court report says.

Monique Fort, 48, appeared before Judge Margaret W. Martin on Oct. 17 – about three weeks after police say she snatched about $3 from the child's hand and his mother at Richard's Fruit and Vegetables on Sept. 17 beaten up on Jerome Avenue in Mount Eden. 24.

Martin granted Fort, who police say has been arrested 14 times, supervised release, but issued a stern warning.

“MS. Got it, I'm telling you now. It may not seem like it, but you were so close to going to Rikers Island just now,” the judge accused her.

“If you screw this up in any way, I'll send you into custody, which means you could be the richest person in the world and not be able to get out until these allegations are resolved,” she added.

“I'm not kidding. You'll walk out of here thinking you've left the court behind you. If you don’t show up and get arrested again for something new, you’ll go to jail.”

The judge asked Fort three times if she understood that – to which the accused highwayman replied “yes.”

The judge also issued a protective order to keep Fort away from the injured mother and her unsettled son.

Surveillance video of the shocking bodega robbery showed Fort sticking her head through the door of the small market and accosting the boy who was holding the small bills.

She grabbed his money and turned to leave, but ran into the boy's 38-year-old mother – who tried to stop her as she pushed another small child in a stroller, the video showed.

The tyrannical highwayman then punched the mother in the face and fled.

After the attack, the boy cried, was visibly shaken and apologized to his mother for the attack, Assistant District Attorney Gary McKenna said.

According to the criminal complaint filed against her, Fort was charged with aggravated assault and criminal negligence causing bodily harm, as well as aggravated robbery, grand larceny, petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment.

At the start of the arraignment, Martin initially denied the assault charge, stating that “the facts do not establish grievous bodily harm, which is one element.”

“And there is no allegation that the injury that occurred here was caused by the use of a dangerous instrument,” Martin said.

“The only thing I actually see is the child's minor agitation,” argued Eric Scott, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society in Fort.

But McKenna insisted that the serial offender should be held on $20,000 bail, a $60,000 insurance bond or a partially secured bond because of her arrest history and alleged refusal to return to court.

Fort has “three New York County warrants in extremely old cases” and “an assault case currently in Bronx Court that was arraigned in late September,” McKenna said.

Her other previous arrests included robbery, reckless endangerment, prostitution and loitering, police said this week.

“Don’t mess up,” Martin advised Fort as the arraignment came to a close. “You are now being interviewed by the supervised release people. Nobody will try to make things difficult for you.

“This is about ensuring that you appear in court again, that you are not arrested again and that you know what it means to comply with the terms of the protective order.”