Dan Sohail, the man facing federal charges for ramming his car into the Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn, has refused to come to court three times in the last two weeks — ever since he got into an “altercation” with another inmate at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, where he’s being held without bail, sources said.
Sohail, 36, was a no-show at a scheduled bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Friday. Prosecutors and his attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, noted that this was the third time he hadn’t been able to make it to court since March 4, when he got into an “altercation with another inmate” at MDC, a source with knowledge of the case said.
Attorneys didn’t elaborate what the altercation was about. An email to the federal Bureau of Prisons and an email and call to Eisner-Grynberg were not immediately returned.
Federal judges across the city have decried the conditions at MDC Brooklyn — where Sean “Diddy” Combs, R Kelly and Ghislaine Maxwell were once held — as “barbaric” and “inhumane” and its staff as “contemptuous of human life and dignity.”
Dan Sohail, of Carteret, N.J., appears for his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Jan. 30, 2026. (Kevin C. Downs/POOL)
In 2024, the jail saw a string of violent attacks, including two murders over just six weeks, and a caught-on-video assault that showed a trio of MS-13 attackers stabbing a fellow gang member for 37 seconds before a lone correction officer arrived to stop them.
Sohail was not religious growing up, but had recently told his grandmother he wanted to convert to Judaism, his father previously told the Daily News.
Sohail’s March 4 bail hearing was initially rescheduled for earlier this week, but Sohail refused to come to court, the source said. The bail hearing was then rescheduled to Friday, when he again refused to appear.
Sohail faces federal charges of intentionally defacing or damaging religious real property for the bizarre Jan. 28 incident when he was caught on camera slamming his car into the side entrance of the Chabad World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights with his Honda, sending a crowd nearby scrambling. The charges carry a maximum three years behind bars.
Sohail was already facing state hate crime charges and was locked up on Rikers Island when he was hit with the federal charges. On Friday, Eisner-Grynberg told the judge that the state charges will be dismissed soon and she will ask for a bail hearing on the federal charges once that happens, the source said.
Dan Sohail allegedly slammed his car into the entrance of the Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn on Jan. 28, 2026. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)
He’s expected to appear in court on the state charges on March 31, according to court records.
When he was arraigned on federal hate crimes charges on March 2, his lawyer said Sohail had hoped to return to Rikers Island, where he was already being held on state charges, so he could properly observe the Jewish holiday Purim. But he was sent to MDC Brooklyn because he’s formally in federal custody.
Federal prosecutors asked Magistrate Judge Clay Kaminsky to hold him without bail, with the assistant U.S. attorney warning that, if he was set free, nothing would prevent him “from getting into a car and going to any other synagogue or any other house of worship and repeating the conduct.”
The judge ordered Sohail held without bail, but noted that that hen was inclined to eventually release Sohail whenever a bail hearing is held.
With John Annese