RIDGEWOOD — Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced last week that a 25-year-old Brooklyn man pleaded guilty to an assault as a hate crime stemming from his 2012 attack of a man in Ridgewood.
Brown said Joseph Desmond, 25, of Brooklyn, ran up to a 23-year-old standing near Gates and Fairview avenues Sept. 25, 2012, shouted an anti-gay slur and shocked him with a stun gun to his torso.
The victim sustained chest pains from the attack, according to Brown.
“Hate crimes — whether motivated by sexual orientation, gender, religious or ethnic bias — will never be tolerated in Queens County,” Brown said in a statement. “The defendant has been promised a prison term of one to three years behind bars and five years post-release supervision, which will serve as a punishment for this crime and a deterrent to those who would contemplate committing hate crimes here in Queens.”
Desmond pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime in Queens Criminal Court May 28, according to the DA.
He is scheduled to be sentenced July 23, the borough’s top prosecutor said.
