Subway bug chucker ends case, gets community service at women’s prison

October 30, 2018 By Christina Carrega Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Zadia Pugh, who unleashed a swarm of crickets and worms on a subway in August 2016, plead guilty yesterday to second-degree reckless endangerment. AP Photo by Patrick Semansky

Share this:

The woman who deliberately unleashed insects onboard a Brooklyn-bound subway train, causing dozens of straphangers to freak out, accepted a guilty plea two years after the incident, which was caught on camera.

Zaida Pugh of the Bronx was facing up to a year on Rikers Island after her performance on a Brooklyn-bound D train to bring awareness to homelessness and mental health went wrong in August 2016.

Pugh, 23, along with two juvenile accomplices, recorded her performance of “selling” some 600 crickets and worms in the train car until a frightened passenger pulled the emergency break as the bugs swarmed, stopping the train for nearly an hour. Pugh also urinated on subway floor during this time.

The bug hurler pleaded guilty to the top charge of second-degree reckless endangerment and was sentenced on Monday to a conditional discharge.

Law enforcement sources said Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Elizabeth Warin offered Pugh a plea bargain, through which she would avoid Riker’s Island if she completed a Women’s Prison Association Justice Home program.

The case was adjourned to Dec. 17 for a compliance update. If Pugh does comply with the judge’s orders, she faces up to a year in jail.