A Brooklyn jury convicted a Queens man of assaulting a Jewish community leader outside the Barclays Center after a preseason basketball game against an Israeli team.
Shawn Schraeder was acquitted of hate crime charges for punching Leonard Petlakh
in the face in front of his two kids after the Oct. 7, 2014 game.
“There’s no evidence that whoever punched Mr. Petlakh knew he was Jewish or Israeli,” said Schraeder’s attorney Scott Klein during his closing arguments Wednesday, adding, “no words were said before, during or after the punch.”
Cellphone video captured the aftermath of another incident allegedly involving friends of Petlakh and Nerdeen Kiswani who was allegedly a part of an anti-Israeli group that protested — and even disrupted — the game.
Kiswani, 22, accused Petlakh, executive director of the Kings Bay Y in Sheepshead Bay, of being a part of a group that punched her in the stomach and stole her Palestinian flag, according to the video.
The game in question featured the Brooklyn Nets game and the Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.
Jurors watched surveillance footage from the Flatbush Ave. venue of Kiswani allegedly in Petlakh’s face yelling as Schraeder briskly walked through the crowd behind them.
Out of camera view, Schraeder punched Petlakh in the face and ran away.
Petlakh, 44, suffered a broken nose and needed stitches.
A week later, Schraeder, 27, was hunted down by members of the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force while he was in St. Louis, Mo. for a Michael Brown protest and brought back to New York.
Petlakh did not see who punched him, but his 14-year-old son, Daniel, testified during the four-day trial that he’s “100% sure that’s the guy who hit” his dad, according to trial testimony.
NYPD Detective Anderson Smart did not deem the incident as a hate crime, but prosecutors with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office did.
“Detective Smart got it wrong, you’re here to get it right,” said Assistant District Attorney Kelli Muse during her closing arguments.
The jurors deliberated for less than three hours before rejecting the prosecutor’s hate crime theories and found Schraeder guilty of assault, menacing and endangering the welfare of a child.
Outside of Brooklyn Supreme Court, Schraeder maintained his innocence and will appeal.
Schraeder faces up to a year in prison for the misdemeanor convictions when sentenced Nov. 7.