FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2005

D.A. BROWN: CO-DEFENDANT IN HOWARD BEACH BIAS ATTACK SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that one of the defendants charged in a racially motivated baseball bat attack last summer in Howard Beach that critically injured a young black man has been sentenced to serve two years in state prison. His co-defendant – the alleged prime mover in the attack – remains in prison awaiting trial.

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Anthony Ench, 22, of 156-16 77th Street in Howard Beach, Queens. He pleaded 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, and was sentenced earlier today by Acting Supreme Court Justice Pauline A. Mullings to serve concurrent determinant terms of two years and one year in prison.

District Attorney Brown said, “Today’s sentence sends a powerful message that crimes motivated by bias will not be tolerated in Queens County. The defendant has admitted that he took part in a heinous, cowardly and hate motivated crime that left a young man seriously injured. As I have said many times attacks predicated upon hate are a threat to the safety and welfare of all. They disrupt entire communities and cannot be tolerated by a civilized society. ”

District Attorney Brown said that defendant Ench admitted that at approximately 3:30 a.m. on June 29, 2005, in the vicinity of 160th Avenue and 78th Street in Howard Beach, he participated in the beating of Glenn Moore, 22, during which time racial epithets were used, by kicking and punching him after he had been clubbed by his co-defendant and that during the attack he stole the victim’s sneakers.

District Attorney identified Ench’s co-defendant as Nicholas Minucci, 19, of 156-45 78th Street in Howard Beach, Queens, who is accused of beating his victim with an aluminum bat, causing the victim to sustain a fractured skull and other injuries. During the attack, racial slurs were allegedly uttered. Members of 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.

District Attorney Brown noted that just yesterday Minucci was 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.

Both the Ench and Minucci cases are 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.

District Attorney Brown expressed his appreciation to the members of the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit for their assistance in the investigation and prosecution of this case.