Broad Channel melee still being investigated

The investigation into the Halloween egging melee in Broad Channel is ongoing, as police continue to review video surveillance and photos taken during the afternoon incident on Cross Bay Boulevard.
Following the ruckus with police, four people were arrested in Broad Channel-22-year-old Robert Glade, 16-year-old Nicholas Stack, and 17-year-old Patrick Rich, as well as Rich’s 44-year-old mother Patricia. Patricia and Patrick Rich, as well as Robert Glade, now face a year behind bars, and all four Broad Channel residents will appear in court on Monday, November 13.
In the most publicized photo, an undercover detective -depicted with his badge slung around his neck-is shown holding his nightstick above his head as a teenager crouches on the street with his hands halfway in the air.
In response to this photo, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has in published reports defended the actions of the plainclothes officer in the photo, saying that the cop had swung his nightstick only in defense and in order to regain control of the crowd, which swelled to nearly 100 people during the melee.
The NYPD said that the three officers who responded to the incident had acted in accordance with police procedures, according to a spokesperson from the NYPD, who also said that there had been no updates in the investigation as of Tuesday, November 7.
However, one eyewitness, Margaret Glade, sister of Patricia Rich, and mother of Robert Glade, two of the four arrested, recounted a different story from the police account, saying that the officer had used excessive force and didn’t identify himself as a cop.
Glade said that the officer had been parked on West 10th Road, mid-way on the block between Cross Bay Boulevard and the Jamaica Bay, when a set of younger children, between the ages of 10 and 12, pitched an egg at his car.
&#8220They [the police officers] went after the older kids, when it was the younger kids egging themselves over here,” Glade said as she pointed to the northbound side of Cross Bay Boulevard. &#8220I was out here with my nephews and nieces.”
Glade said when she looked over to the intersection of Cross Bay Boulevard and West 10th Road, she spotted her sister, Patricia Rich, being dragged by the hair. Glade and Nicholas Stack, 16, ran over to the officer and Rich, with Stack running in front.
&#8220The cop was beating her with the baton,” Margaret Glade said.
&#8220At first I thought, he [the officer] had a crowbar,” Margaret Glade said, charging that the officer struck Stack three times in total with a nightstick until the teenager fell to the ground.
She said that once Stack was on the ground, the officer taunted the crowd, yelling, &#8220You want some, you want some, too?”
&#8220He had such anger in his eyes. He just looked berserk,” she said, saying that she pleaded with the officer to stop hitting her sister and Stack. &#8220All I wanted him to do was stop … I said stop, I’ll wash the egg off your car.”
&#8220After three whacks, after that, people started throwing the eggs. The kids came from across the street and started throwing eggs to stop him,” Glade said, referring to how the officer was pelted in the neck with an egg.
Glade said that she had continuously called for help during the incident that lasted several minutes, never realizing that the officer was, in fact, from the NYPD.
&#8220I didn’t believe that an officer would speak that way,” she said, claiming that when the officer realized that his badge had not been visible during most of the melee, he had shouted, &#8220I’m screwed.”
When asked if her sister had shouted any racial epithets, Glade denied that racial insults were shouted by either side throughout the attack, but admitted that both sides let loose a slew of profanities.
She said that her son had been charged with six separate crimes, and she is considering hiring a lawyer for herself.
In addition to the barrage from the media and courtroom dealings, the Rich and Glade family has had to deal with taunts from Maria Minucci, mother of Nicholas (Fat Nick) Minucci, who stood on Queens Criminal Court steps last week, denouncing the Broad Channel families involved in the incident as racists.
Margaret Glade said that Maria Minucci was angry after she and her sister, Patricia Rich, called for &#8220Fat Nick” to receive a hefty jail sentence for the 2005 Howard Beach bias attack.
&#8220I was outside that courtroom making sure that Nick Minucci paid for what he did to my nephew,” she said.
Nick Minucci allegedly attacked John Rich in 2002 but Minucci received no jail time for the attack after John Rich, then 15, was soon after killed in an unrelated train accident.