#Bail reform, social justice helped free career criminal linked to NYC burglary spree

A toxic mix of progressive bail reform and social justice-pushing liberals has given one of the Big Apple’s most prolific burglars plenty of time to ply her trade during the coronavirus pandemic–helping her to stroll out of jail nearly a half dozen times in the past six months.

Transgender career criminal Solomon “Aliana” Lambert has been arrested at least five times since April in connection to a staggering 17 burglaries in some of Manhattan’s priciest zip codes, police told The Post.

Lambert, 38, whose criminal record includes at least 60 arrests, allegedly targeted mailboxes in scores of buildings from Gramercy Park to the West Village, with a keen eye for high-priced laptops and other techie must-haves, police said.

She was a one-woman crime wave — with more burglary charges than anyone else in Gotham since April, according to NYPD stats obtained by The Post.

Any time she got in trouble with the law, Lambert got out with help from her left leaning ‘friends.’

Among them was Molly Crabapple, a writer and artist regularly featured in the New York Times and other publications, who posted a $10,000 check for Lambert’s bail on May 27.

Crabapple, a vocal advocate for bail reform, illustrated a 2018 anti-bail campaign narrated by John Legend and produced by the nonprofit Color of Change. She dedicated recent artwork to Layleen Polanco, a transgender inmate who died in Rikers in 2019 from complications of epilepsy.

“I painted this sign for Layleen Polanco, a beautiful young trans ballroom performer who died alone in a Solitary cell because she could not afford bail, and because snickering fools did not give her medical attention for her epilepsy,” Crabapple, 36, Tweeted on June 15.

Crabapple told The Post she posted bail for Lambert on behalf of the Emergency Release Fund, which describes its mission as “getting LGBTQ and medically vulnerable individuals out of Rikers Island and ICE detention.” Its Twitter displays a “Trans Lives Matter” logo.

The Fund did not return messages from The Post.

Lambert, “who is physically male, but identifies as female,” according to a source familiar with her case, is HIV-positive and a high-risk if she contracts COVID.

“Ms. Lambert doesn’t need to be in Rikers, she needs to be in treatment” for her drug and mental health issues, the person claimed.

Crabapple said she didn’t know much about the person she was bailing out.

“The reason that they have individuals post bail is that generally they don’t allow bail funds to post bail for everyone … at once,” she said. “But it’s not something that i have any capacity in choosing or knowing about . . . it’s just a volunteer job.”

Crabapple said she is against suspects being held on bail, but “I think anyone who lays a hand on an old person is disgusting.”

She continued: “I … strongly oppose cash bail, and I strongly support bail funds. I think that the right to having a free and fair trial and not being punished before your trial is very important to America.”

Her freedom was short-lived.

She was pinched again on June 10 and charged with multiple counts of burglary, grand larceny and drug possession. Judge Jay Weiner sent her off to Rikers, but it was determined “they had to set bail,” a court spokesman said. Judge Joanne Watters set it at $35,000 cash on June 17.

This time around, Brooklyn artist Kealohi Wean, a 22-year-old from suburban Chicago and a recent Pratt Institute grad, came to the rescue.

“I’m not going to answer any questions, thank you,” Wean said when contacted by a Post reporter.

The source familiar with the case said Wean was again working on behalf of the Emergency Release Fund.

Meanwhile, she had the state’s new bail reform law to thank for two earlier arrests, on April 24 and May 4.

The reforms allow accused burglars to be automatically cut loose. Cops and critics contend such policies are behind the city’s 41-percent spike in break-ins this year.

On May 19, Lambert was charged with multiple counts of burglary and drug possession after allegedly stealing packages and envelopes from four buildings in Gramercy and Chelsea.

Cops say they found her carrying “several screw drivers, a wrench and a cork screw” along with methamphetamine and heroin wrapped in dollar bills. A judge set bail at $10,000 under a provision that allows a suspect to be held if they are charged with a crime after being released without bail.

Lampbert is finally in jail on Rikers Island — for now– only because her latest alleged crime, was also her most bloody.

On July 9, she allegedly slugged a 67-year-old man in the face as he entered a building on West 21st Street, gashing his lip, police said. The alleged aggression triggered a provision in the new reforms.

Judge Lumarie Maldonado-Cruz set bail at $35,000 following the arrest — and Lambert, with no one to bail her out, remains behind bars at Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers.

Lambert is among the nine other burglary suspects arrested between March and August this year for at least 116 break-ins, police said.

The NYPD has arrested 77 suspects for burglaries three or more times in the past six months — a 266 percent uptick from the number of perps arrested three or more times for burglaries during the same time last year, and a 450 percent increase from 2018.