THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2005

D.A. BROWN: FIVE SENTENCED TO INCARCERATION IN BIAS-RELATED ATTACK ON SIKH MAN IN RICHMOND HILL
Defendants Ordered to Perform Community Service in Sikh Community

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that five men convicted in the brutal bias-related assault on a Sikh man outside a Richmond Hill catering hall in July 2004 received sentences ranging from five days in jail to two years in state prison.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendants had gathered for a family celebration – the christening of an infant daughter. What should have been marked as an important and happy occasion has now instead been stained with hatred and violence, leaving in its wake an innocent man unconscious and seriously injured on the sidewalk. Crimes motivated by bias – particularly those involving violence – can never be tolerated. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Justice has now been done in this case and the defendants have now been held accountable for their actions.”

The District Attorney identified the defendants as: (1) Salvatore Maceli, 26, (2) Nicholas Maceli, 22, and (3) Victor Cosentino, 58, all of 31 Ethel Avenue in Valley Stream in Nassau County; (4) Ryan Meehan, 24, of 84-12 127th Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens, and (5) Terence Lyons, 53, of 1328 Post Avenue in Elmont in Nassau County. The defendants Nicholas and Salvatore Maceli are brothers and Victor Cosentino is their stepfather. Defendant Lyons is the uncle of Nicholas and Salvatore Maceli and defendant Meehan is allegedly Nicholas Maceli’s friend.

The District Attorney said that on December 5, 2005, following a five-week bench trial in Queens County Supreme Court, Justice Seymour Rotker found Salvatore and Nicolas Maceli each guilty of Assault in the Second Degree; Terence Lyons and Ryan Meehan each guilty of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree as a hate crime; and Victor Cosentino guilty of Harassment in the Second Degree.

The defendants appeared today in Queens County Supreme Court at which time Justice Rotker imposed the following sentences:

▸ Salvatore Maceli was sentenced to two years in state prison and two years of post parole supervision.

▸ Nicolas Maceli was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation, during which time he must enroll in sensitivity training and anger management programs, obtain psychotherapy counseling and perform 150 hours of community service with the Sikh Coalition, a community-based organization that defends civil rights and liberties and educates the broader community about Sikhs and diversity.

▸ Ryan Meehan was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years’ probation, during which time he must enroll in sensitivity training and anger management programs, obtain drug treatment and counseling, and perform 150 hours of community service with the Sikh Coalition.

▸ Terence Lyons was sentenced to 20 days in jail and three years’ probation, during which time he must enroll in sensitivity training and anger management programs and perform 50 hours of community service with the Sikh Coalition.

▸ Victor Cosentino was sentenced to five days in jail and ordered to pay a $250 fine.

In addition, Judge Rotker issued orders of protection preventing the defendants from having any contact with the two Sikh victims in this case, Rajinder Singh Khalsa and Gurcharan Singh.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to trial testimony, between 5:00 and 5:45 p.m. on July 11, 2004,outside the Villa Russo Risorante, a Richmond Hill catering hall on 101st Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard, the defendants Meehan and Nicholas Maceli, and later joined by Cosentino and Lyons, taunted Rajinder Singh Khalsa, 50, and a companion, Gurcharan Singh, 51, both wearing turbans required by the Sikh religion, by mocking them and demanding that the two remove their turbans from their heads. The two Maceli brothers and others then repeatedly punched the victim Khalsa in the face, knocking him to the ground where they kicked him until he lost consciousness. Khalsa was later treated at a hospital for multiple contusions, abrasions, swelling and substantial pain to his eye and face. A CAT scan revealed that Khalsa had sustained multiple fractures to the left orbital bone, as well as complex, obstructive fractures of the nose which required facial reconstruction surgery to enable him to breathe.

The defendants were arrested as the result of a joint investigation by the District Attorney’s Gang Violence and Hate Crimes Bureau and the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney George J. Farrugia, Supervisor of the District Attorney’s Gang Violence and Hate Crimes Bureau (GVHC), and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth D. Parke, Director of Juvenile Prosecutions, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mariela Palomino Herring, GVHC Bureau Chief, Robert J. Hanophy, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Charles N. Walsh, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James Clark Quinn.