THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2005

D.A. BROWN: GRAND JURY INDICTS ALLEGED PRIME MOVER IN HOWARD BEACH BAT ATTACK ON HATE CRIME AND ROBBERY CHARGES
Allegedly Beat Victim with Aluminum Bat and Uttered Racial Slurs

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Queens County grand jury has indicted a Howard Beach teenager on charges of assault as a hate crime and other offenses stemming from an alleged bias-related baseball bat attack last summer that critically injured a young black man.

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Nicholas Minucci, 19, of 156-45 78th Street in Howard Beach, Queens, who has been charged in a 19-count indictment with two counts of Assault in the First Degree as a Hate Crime, one count of Assault in the First Degree, two counts of Assault in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, one count of Assault in the Second Degree, four counts of Robbery in the First Degree as a Hate Crime, two counts of Robbery in the First Degree, two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, one count of Robbery in the Second Degree, three counts of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fifth Degree and one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree. If convicted, the defendant faces a determinate sentence of from eight years to 25 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is at the center of an allegedly racially motivated baseball bat attack that left a young man seriously injured both physically and emotionally. Spewing hateful racial slurs, the defendant’s alleged conduct was as primitive as the club he used. Such acts of hate have no place in a civilized society – especially here in Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the nation. When crimes motivated by hate regrettably do occur, those responsible must be dealt with aggressively and brought to justice.”

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the indictment which was filed this morning in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, at approximately 3:30 a.m. on June 29, 2005, in the vicinity of 160th Avenue and 78th Street in Howard Beach the defendant physically attacked his victim, Glenn Moore, 22, uttering racial epithets, and beating him severely with an aluminum bat. The victim, who sustained a fractured skull and other injuries, was then allegedly robbed of his sneakers by the defendant and a co-defendant, Anthony Ench.

The District Attorney said that police officers assigned to the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit arrested Minucci about 11 hours after the attack on a nearby street in Howard Beach as he was driving a 2005 Cadillac Escalade that he allegedly used in the attack. The victim’s sneakers, shirt and shoes were allegedly found in the defendant’s possession.

Minucci’s co-defendant, Anthony Ench, 22, of 156-16 77th Street in Howard Beach, Queens, pled guilty on October 11, 2005 to Attempted Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony, and Attempted Assault in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, a Class D felony, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert M. Raciti, who indicated that he would sentence him for his role in the attack to concurrent determinate terms of two years and one year, respectively, on October 28, 2005.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Brian E. Kohm of the District Attorney’s Gang Violence and Hate Crimes Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Mariela Palomino Herring, Bureau Chief, and Robert J. Hanophy, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James C. Quinn and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials John H. Larsen.

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.