Five of Rajinder Singh Khalsa’s attackers were just acquitted on hate crime charges (thanks, Dave). Two were convicted of assault, but the hate crime acquittals sure look like a miscarriage of justice:
A Queens judge rendered mostly not guilty verdicts Monday in the trial of five men accused of attacking a Sikh man in Richmond Hill. All were acquitted of the hate crime charge. Two defendants were found guilty of second degree assault while three others were found guilty only of aggravated harassment…Queens Supreme Court Justice Seymour Rotker, who conducted the non-jury trial, suggested he didn’t believe at least one of the witnesses and appeared skeptical at the evidence as he rendered the verdict… Rotker said there was “conflicting testimony as to who did what and how” during the July 11, 2004 beating… Police said Khalsa was attacked by the men who were at a christening at a catering hall next to an Indian restaurant. [Link]
DNSI summarizes the attack:
The incident began when the defendants remarked, in reference to Khalsa’s turban, “Look, somebody stole my curtains” and “Why did you steal my sheets from my house?”“One of the defendants, Ryan Meehan, yelled, ‘Give me my curtain.’”
Singh told the presiding judge that he asked Meehan, “What do you mean, ‘Give me my curtain?’”
Moments later, another defendant, Terence Lyons, said “You still here?…. Go to your home. Go to your country.” To which one of the Sikh men replied, “[T]his is my country. This is my home, too.”
The perpetrators then began assaulting Khalsa, fractured his left eye socket, continued to kick his body while he was unconscious, and left him for dead. [Link]
Honest, judge, those weren’t punches, those were love taps. And those aren’t black eyes, he’s just low on sleep.
