Yesterday, the Suffolk County DA's office said that a group of teens, already charged with fatally beating a Hispanic man to death last November, had been on a 13-month-long "hate spree," targeting and terrorizing Latinos. DA Thomas Spota said, "All of the defendants participated in what we consider to be a violent and racially driven pastime" and Newsday detailed some of the crimes:
Last July, at least two of the teens beat a Hispanic man unconscious, stealing his money and shoes.
In December, three of them harassed and menaced a lone Hispanic man with a pipe, telling him, "You're dead."
In June, several of the teens pinned still another man to the ground, beating him and lunging at his stomach with a knife, slicing his belt, pants and skin.
Five of the teens, Christopher Overton, Jose Pacheco, Nicholas Hausch, Jordan Dasch and Anthony Hartford "pleaded not guilty to a slew of second-degree robbery, assault, gang assault or hate crime charges." Two others, Kevin Shea and Jeffrey Conroy, will be arraigned next week. The Suffolk DA's office also believes more teens were involved with the racially motivated assaults; Spota said, "There is a lot of work still to be done to ensure the safety of all the people who choose to call Suffolk County home.”
After Ecuadorian immigrant Marcello Lucero's death in November, the authorities interviewed a number of men who claimed they were victims of hate crimes by teens. Overton's lawyer, thought, said the prosecutors were "just piling on. I think they're just trying to clear every unsolved crime here involving a Hispanic complainant." The Suffolk County police have been accused of ignoring the pattern of assaults, spurring a federal inquiry. And Newsday reported that when some victims told the police of being attacked by teens, the cops allegedly refused to do anything, saying, "You're men, they're kids."
