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The young man who allegedly slashed three people during a fight outside a Manhattan bar Saturday is the son of late-night TV royalty — and is now facing an attempted-murder charge.
Arlo Willner, the 20-year-old offspring of late “Saturday Night Live” music coordinator Hal Willner and his wife Sheila Rogers — an Emmy Award-winning producer for James Corden and David Letterman — pleaded not guilty to the upgraded charge and related counts at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
His bail was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond — and bond was swiftly posted for him, allowing him to stroll out of jail in less than a day.
Willner — whose 2004 birth was marked in a New York Post column at the time — allegedly started the bloody argument around 3:30 a.m. when he approached the trio of victims outside Sally’s Bar in Kips Bay and asked to buy cocaine, according to a criminal complaint.
The three male victims “informed [Willner] that this was not the place for that,” and the suspect’s ensuing verbal outrage turned physical when he pulled a knife, the complaint said.
Willner allegedly slashed one victim, 46, in the neck that led to a deep laceration and massive bleeding, while he stabbed another victim, 45, in the shoulder and slashed the third, who is in his 30s, in the stomach, according to the complaint.
The rampage finally came to an end when one of the victims grabbed the knife and threw it in the street.
Manhattan prosecutors also charged Willner with two counts of first-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon on top of the attempted-murder rap.
He was initially slapped with only assault and criminal-possession-of-a-weapon charges by police.
While a judge set the $100,000 cash bail or $200,000 bond amounts in the case, the suspect was out of custody in less within a day after celebrity bondsman Ira Judelson secured a $200,000 bond, law-enforcement sources said.
Judelson is known as the “bondman to the stars” for working with numerous high-profile clients over the years, including Harvey Weinstein, DMX and Ja Rule.
Willner’s mother Rogers was a three-time Emmy-winning supervisor producer for “The Late Late Show with James Corden” before the CBS program ended in 2023, and she previously worked for the “Late Show with David Letterman,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
Hal Willner was a highly regarded music producer for “SNL” for decades before his death in April 2020. He was suffering from symptoms associated with COVID-19 when he died at 64 years old, according to reports at the time.
He was also known for putting together a series of eccentric all-star tribute albums.
A lawyer for Arlo Willner, David Scott Smith, declined comment on the case Sunday.
A call left for Rogers and Willner was not returned.
His next court appearance is May 22.
English (US)