By Sadef A Kully
A Queens grand jury has indicted a Long Island man on hate crime charges for allegedly ramming his pick-up truck into a Sikh and dragging his body along the street before fleeing the scene in Ozone Park, the Queens District Attorney office said.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim, Sandeep Singh, 29, and three of his friends were standing at the intersection of 101st Avenue and 99th Street July 30 when a pick-up truck driven by 55-year-old Joseph Caleca from Setauket approached the group and he allegedly said, “Move your [expletive] ass.” You’re [expletive] slow, you [expletive] Osama. Go back to your country.”
The complaint also alleges that Caleca had parked his truck to confront Singh and his friends, but then returned to his vehicle and drove head-on into Singh, who became trapped under the truck. Caleca is charged with dragging Singh along the street until his body dislodged, at which point Caleca fled the scene, according to the court papers filed by the Queens DA.
Court documents showed that Caleca was arraigned in a nine-count indictment charging him with attempted murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon and leaving the scene without reporting.
“The defendant is accused of an unprovoked attack that allegedly began with the defendant driving by the victim and his friends and calling him a terrorist and ordering him to leave the country. After an exchange of words, the defendant allegedly struck the victim intentionally with his vehicle and dragged him along the street,” DA Richard Brown said.
Singh was taken to a Queens hospital, where he received treatment for his injuries, which included surgery for internal bleeding and several staples to his mid-section.
The Singh family has requested privacy from the press since last week’s indictment, according to the Sikh Coalition.
The Sikh Coalition, a national advocacy group for members of the Sikh faith; Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization; and the Richmond Hill-based Sikh Cultural society, in protest called Caleca’s actions hate crime last year after his arrest.
“The community hopes that we get justice in this case. His case is illustrative of what we are trying to do,” said Rajdeep Singh, senior law and policy director at the Sikh Coalition.
After four major attacks against Sikh communities across the country in 2014, including Sandeep Singh’s case, the Sikh Coalition pushed the FBI to make changes in hate crime tracking by including minority religious groups in its data.
“Tracking a hate crime is not a victory, the victory is when hate crimes stop,” said Rajdeep Singh. “We should all be working on eliminating hate crimes and that’s the value of this data.”
According to the Sikh Coalition, including religious minorities in tracking hate crimes will lead to better and more focused training, which in turn will result in more thorough investigations and prevention programs.
Caleca, who was initially arrested in August 2014, was remanded on continuing bail and his next court date is April 22. Caleca faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, the DA said.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
