No Contest Pleas in L.A. Assault
Two Iranian men accused of attacking two men whom they believed were Jewish outside a West Hollywood nightclub pleaded no contest to a hate-crime charge, according to the Associated Press.
Daoud Mohammad Majid, 19, and Mohammed Hassan Aref, 22, would have faced as many as eight years in state prison had they been convicted of the original charges — committing an assault likely to cause great bodily injury — enhanced by a hate-crime allegation, said Scott Millington, head of the hate-crimes unit of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office. Instead, on Monday the two pleaded no contest to a hate-crime attack, without the original bodily injury component that prosecutors had sought.
Majid was put on three years’ probation and ordered to receive tolerance counseling, go to the Museum of Tolerance, perform community service and make restitution to the victims, Millington said.
The same conditions were imposed on Aref, but his sentencing was postponed and he was ordered back to court on November 3.
The charges stemmed from a riot on September 15, 2002, in which two men were attacked, allegedly by a group shouting, “Kill the Jews!” The ambush occurred at around 2 a.m., when a crowd of 10 to 15 people set upon the two young men outside the Goodbar nightclub on Sunset Boulevard, which had sponsored a Persia Night that evening.
The riot shocked members of the Jewish and Muslim Iranian communities, who insisted that Iranian Muslims and Jews get along well in the Los Angeles area, home to one of the largest Iranian Jewish communities in the United States.
Nevertheless, as the Forward reported in September, some noted that the attack might be a sign of new tensions emerging between the two groups.
“We have noticed more reporting of antisemitic incidents within the Iranian community,” said Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Southwest regional office and herself an immigrant from Iran.
“It may be an isolated incident, but it is alarming enough for civil-rights organizations and Jewish leaders to be more vigilant,” she said at the time.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!