Two Valley Stream, N.Y., teenagers criticized police and prosecutors Wednesday after a grand jury voted not to indict them on charges they beat up a UTU member in what police had said was a possible racial attack, Newsday reports.
Domineek Washington and Jimmy Blaise, both 18, faced gang assault charges after police said they beat Joseph Frigenti, 30, a Long Island Rail Road worker and member of UTU Local 722, Babylon, outside his home on Broadway during a Fourth of July party.
Prosecutors had looked at the case as a possible hate crime, which would have elevated the charges to a class B felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison, said Washington's lawyer, Brian Griffin of Garden City.
"Instead of doing a full investigation, they threw us in jail," Blaise said at a news conference, where both he and Washington spoke.
Police and prosecutors said they did the only responsible thing by presenting the evidence to a grand jury.
"The district attorney chose to present the case to an impartial grand jury of the defendants' peers," said Eric Phillips, a spokesman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice. "That's the fairest thing a prosecutor can do in a situation where there are two sides to a story."
Washington and Blaise are black and Frigenti is white. Griffin said there was not enough evidence for police to look into the case as a hate crime. Police said witnesses had raised the possibility of a bias attack.
Griffin said Washington, Blaise and two friends were arguing with some other Valley Stream teens when three adult men, including Frigenti, came over, told them to leave and then attacked them.
"Everything my client did was in self-defense, and he did nothing exceeding his right to defend himself," Griffin said. He asserted that Washington and Blaise were not responsible for Frigenti's most serious injuries, which included fractures of his eye orbits and jaw, contusions and swelling on the brain.
Frigenti's lawyer, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick of Melville, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A prosecutor had previously said that several witnesses identified Washington and Blaise, although police said about a dozen youths were involved.
Nassau Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone said the witnesses told police that there may have been a racial motivation in the attack. Police were obligated to look into that, he said.
(This item appeared in Newsday Aug. 28, 2009. Additional information added by UTU editors.)
