A Hasidic man on trial for allegedly participating in a gang assault that left a gay African-American man blind in one eye may have been acting as the “ringleader,” the victim said Wednesday.
Taj Patterson testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court that while he was chased by three Hasidic Jewish men on Dec. 1, 2013, they screamed “something negative” at him.
Patterson, 25, was walking home through Williamsburg to Fort Greene after a night of celebrating a friend’s birthday.
Moments into the 4:30 a.m. attack, nearly 17 more men — he believed to be Hasidic or Orthodox Jews — entered the fray on Flushing Ave., said Patterson.
“I was trying to stop cars, two or three, to get them to help. I banged on the windows asking for help, but they kept driving. There were 20 people behind me. … I gave up,” Patterson recalled.
Patterson was pinned onto a chain-linked fence before the storm of kicks, punches and stomps from the gang.
“That same individual who stood in the middle of the three men kicked me in the face, the ringleader,” said Patterson.
During the melee, Patterson was able to free his right arm and strike a hard punch at the alleged leader — breaking his glasses, defense attorney Israel Fried revealed during cross-examination.
Patterson, however, was not able to identify Mayer Herskovic as one of the assailants to police or to Justice Danny Chun at the non-jury trial.
Herskovic faces up to 25 years in prison for his participation in the beating.
DNA evidence of Herskovic was found on the heel of Patterson’s sneaker, which was hurled to the roof of a building after MTA bus driver Evelyn Keys intervened along with another passerby.
“They threw me to the ground, dragged me on my knees, told me to ‘stay on the ground you f–king f—-t.’ I was kicked in the face and saw a flash of white,” he said.
Patterson’s next memory was waking up inside Woodhull Hospital with his right eye swollen to the size of a tennis ball, he said.
If convicted, Herskovic faces up to 25 years in prison.
