Convicted Staten Island killer puts up a fuss in arrest for marijuana

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A convicted killer from Clifton was caught dealing pot over the weekend, then battled an officer who tried to arrest him, police said.

Scott Fields, 36, was hiding 110 bags of marijuana in a Rubbermaid container he kept in his backpack and another dozen in his sleeve when police arrested him on Targee Street about 9 a.m. Saturday, police allege.

Fields, of the 100 block of Park Hill Avenue, is no stranger to legal trouble — he was convicted of manslaughter charges in a 1994 fatal shooting, and acquitted at trial in a 2007 murder case. Since then, he has been arrested on charges he punched a hospital security guard and knocked out two of his teeth, and on drug charges in an unrelated case.

The most recent arrest happened on the 500 block of Targee Street. A police officer spotted Fields sell marijuana to another man, identified in court papers as Al Harley.

When police approached Fields, he ran, dropping his backpack, court papers allege. He also repeatedly punched at one of the officers who moved in to arrest him, court papers allege.

In July 1997, Fields was sentenced to three to nine years in prison stemming from the shooting death of a Silver Lake man in May 1994. He had entered a Serrano plea to first-degree manslaughter, which means he didn’t admit guilt but pleaded guilty because he feared a harsher sentence if convicted at trial.

In July 2009, a jury in state Supreme Court, St. George, acquitted Fields and Vanice Dale, then 23, of Clifton, in connection with the May 20, 2007, killing of Brooklyn resident Wayne Kennedy.

The 18-year-old was gunned down inside a Clifton apartment building. No physical evidence at the scene linked Fields to the killing and the suspect’s cousin testified that Fields was not the gunman he saw.

Police arrested Fields twice over a one-month period in 2010, Advance records show.

In the first incident, on April 12 of that year, police had alleged, he was visiting an acquaintance at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, and attacked a security guard who asked him to stop and show identification during a routine check outside the emergency room. Fields spat in the guard’s face, then punched him and knocked out his two front teeth, according to police.

In the second, on May 9, police arrested Fields after, authorities had alleged, they caught him sitting in a parked car with several bags of marijuana in his hand and stashed inside a coffee cup.

The disposition of the 2010 cases was not available yesterday.

This time around, Fields is charged with several misdemeanors — fourth-degree criminal sale of marijuana, fourth- and fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana, third-degree attempted assault and resisting arrest — as well as unlawful possession of marijuana, which is a violation, according to Peter N. Spencer, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

Fields was arraigned in Stapleton Criminal Court Sunday, where his bail was set at $1,500. He’s due back in court tomorrow.