Hate crime charges for man who attacked Jewish father of 9 in Brooklyn

James Vincent, 40, was arraigned on Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court on a 17-count indictment.

By JTA
Updated: MAY 25, 2018 12:11
Crown Heights, Brooklyn (photo credit: PANORAMIO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
(photo credit: PANORAMIO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
The man accused of attacking an identifiably Jewish man walking home from Shabbat services in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn was indicted on several charges including committing a hate crime.
James Vincent, 40, was arraigned on Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court on a 17-count indictment. He is charged among other things, with first-degree strangulation as a hate crime, and second-degree assault as a hate crime . He also is charged with illegal possession of marijuana. He was arrested last month.
The attack on Menachem Moskowitz, a 52-year-old father of 9, occurred on April 21. He told the CrownHights.info news website following the attack that he said “good afternoon” to the man who was smoking a cigar on a street corner.
“As soon as [I greeted] him he began yelling at me ‘you fake Jews, who are you saying hello to? Your fake Jews and you stole all my money and robbed me, and stole my mortgage and my house. I want to kill you!’” the news website quoted him as saying.
Moskowitz said he walked away from the man quickly but that the assailant caught up with the Jewish man and put him in a chokehold and threatened to kill him. Two women passersby separated the men and called on Moskowitz to run away.
Moskowitz had several rib fractures and a black right eye from the attack. He also had swelling, bruises and scratching all over his body.
It was the second in a series of at least three attacks on identifiably Jewish men in Crown Heights. Vincent has not been connected to other such attacks.