Five Convicted Of 2004 Beating Of Sikh Man

District Attorney Richard A. Brown has announced that five men charged with the vicious bias-related assault on a Sikh man in Richmond Hill, in July have been convicted of various charges following a non-jury trial before Acting Supreme Court Justice Seymour Rotker.
The District Attorney identified the defendants as: (1) Salvatore Maceli, 26, a painter, (2) Nicholas Maceli, 22, a construction worker, and (3) Victor Cosentino, 58, an account manger, all of 31 Ethel Avenue in Valley Stream in Nassau County; (4) Ryan Meehan, 24, of 84-12 127th Avenue in Forest Hills, a sheet metal worker and (5) Terence Lyons, 53, of 1328 Post Avenue in Elmont in Nassau County, retired.
The District Attorney said that, following a five-week bench trial in Queens County Supreme Court, Justice Rotker found Salvatore and Nicolas Maceli each guilty of assault in the second degree, a class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison; Terence Lyons and Ryan Meehan each guilty of aggravated harassment in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail; and Victor Cosentino guilty of harassment in the second degree, a violation punishable by up to 15 days in jail. The defendants remain free on bail ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 pending their sentencing on December 22.
According to trial testimony, between 5:00 and 5:45 p.m. on July 11, 2004, outside the Villa Russo Ristorante, a Richmond Hill catering hall on 101st Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard, the defendants Meehan and Nicholas Maceli, and later joined by Cosentino and Lyons, taunted Rajinder Singh Khalsa, 50, and a companion, Gurcharan Singh, 51, both wearing turbans required by the Sikh religion, by mocking them and demanding that the two remove their turbans from their heads. The two Maceli brothers and others then repeatedly punched the victim Khalsa in the face, knocking him to the ground where they kicked him until he lost consciousness. Khalsa was later treated at a hospital for multiple contusions, abrasions, swelling and substantial pain to his eye and face. A CAT scan revealed that Khalsa had sustained multiple fractures to the left orbital bone, nasal bone, nasal septum and maxillary sinus.