By Kathianne Boniello
The head of the Flushing NAACP said he was disappointed by last week’s sentencing of two Oakland Gardens cousins convicted of a hate crime assault against two teenage NAACP election workers in November 2000.
State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis sentenced the cousins, Marlon Fernandez, 20, and Marvin Ortega, 17, both of 223-59B 65th Ave., the Queens district attorney said. Fernandez was given one to three years in prison, while Ortega received a sentence of six months in jail and five years probation, the DA said.
Fernandez and Ortega were convicted of assaulting two black NAACP election workers in November 2000 as they were distributing get-out-the-vote materials in Oakland Gardens. Fernandez and Ortega beat the victims and shouted racial epithets during the attack.
In a statement Brown called the sentences “just punishment for a reprehensible crime,” but upon hearing the news last week Ken Cohen, president of the Flushing NAACP, disagreed.
“That’s disappointing,” said Cohen, whose group kept a close eye on the case and worked with the teenagers who were beaten. “It’s not what we expected to hear.”
Fernandez and Ortega were convicted in February of third-degree assault as a hate crime after a non-jury trial in State Supreme Court. Brown said the case was the second conviction at a trial in Queens under the state’s new Hate Crimes Act.
The cousins were accused of shouting racial epithets at the victims before attacking them, the DA’s office said. The two election workers were handing out pamphlets near the intersection of 65th Avenue and 224th Street encouraging people to vote in the presidential election.
The statute defines a hate crime as an act committed by a person who intentionally harms another because of a belief about the victim’s race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion or religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation, regardless of whether or not the belief is correct.
According to the DA’s office, the victims were knocked to the ground, punched and kicked. One victim sustained an injury to his left eye and the other had multiple contusions to his face and jaw.
Cohen said the eye injury resulted in permanent damage for the teen.
Given the physical damage done to the victims, Cohen said he and his group had hoped the sentences “would have been a little bit stronger.”
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
