Hasidic Attacker Found Guilty in Gang Beating of Gay Black Man
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis September 26, 2016
A 24-year-old Hasidic man was convicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Friday in connection with a December 2013 gang beating that left a gay black man blind in one eye.
Taj Patterson was beset by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men late one winter night on the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prosecutors say that he was beaten by up to 20 men, who punched him, kicked him, stomped him, and poked his eye.
Now, Mayer Herscovic faces up to 15 years in prison following convictions of second-degree gang assault, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, and menacing. He was acquitted of first-degree gang assault, the most serious charge he faced.
“Today’s verdict is a testament to our determination to fully prosecute this case based on the evidence, which clearly connected this defendant to the crime,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson in a statement about the conviction. “I hope that this outcome will bring a measure of comfort to Mr. Patterson and his family.”
Patterson, who dropped out of fashion school after the brutal attack, testified in gruesome detail at the trial about the late-night assault. “Once the thumb was in my eye, I started screaming, and they just kept punching me. I was tripped, they were kicking me, then dragging me on my knees,” Patterson said in court.
Audiotape played in court of 911 calls placed by witnesses to the attack describe a frightening scene. “There was like 20 Jewish men and one black kid,” a woman said in one call. “I don’t want to go back there, because there was too many of them.”
According to an NYPD detective who testified at the bench trial, residents of the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg were unwilling to help police in their investigation of the beating, lying to detectives who asked for surveillance video that might further the investigation. In order to get access to the tapes, police had a Jewish detective pose as a robbery victim and ask for surveillance videos on his own.
Two other Hasidic men pled guilty in connection with the beating in May, while charges against another two men were dismissed. Police also disciplined a Brooklyn sergeant for initially closing the investigation into the beating.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
