Brooklyn Hasid charged with felony hate crime after attacking neighbor
Rocco Parascandola, Kerry Burke and Bill Hutchinson, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A boozy Brooklyn man was hit with hate crime charges Sunday for pouring beer on a newlywed neighbor, calling her an "Arab terrorist" and pummeling her husband, police sources said.
Following the seemingly unprovoked attack Saturday night in Mill Basin, Simchon Schwartz, 46, hid in a local synagogue and tried to fight off cops when they came to arrest him, sources said.
The Hasid even kicked out a window of a police cruiser as he sat inside, whining that "the cuffs are too tight," a source said.
"F---ing Arabs! F---ing terrorists!" Schwartz screamed when he grabbed his neighbor, Selda Turan, 27. He shoved the woman against her car and poured beer on her head, a police source said.
Turan's husband of 13 months, Mustafa Turan, rushed out of their house to protect his wife, but Schwartz punched him in the face, the source said.
Neighbors said the Turans moved into the heavily Jewish neighborhood about a month ago. They said the victims were from Turkey; it wasn't clear if they were Muslim.
Schwartz was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges of felony assault and felony criminal mischief, both as hate crimes. He was also charged with resisting arrest, obstructing cops, menacing and harassment. He could get up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
"They arrested the wrong person," Schwartz's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, said Monday night.
He said his client was attacked by Mustafa Turan, 32, after Selda Turan complained about Schwartz's children being noisy. He said Mustafa Turan called Schwartz a "dirty Jew" and hit him.
Cops said they found no physical evidence supporting Schwartz's counterclaim, while Mustafa Turan needed three stitches to close a gash on his nose. The ordeal erupted at 7 p.m. Saturday when Schwartz began harassing Selda Turan on their E. 70th St. block, a criminal complaint charges. Schwartz opened a can of beer and poured it on Selda Turan, grabbed her by the the arm, pushed her into the side of her car and called her an "Arab terrorist," the complaint said.
Selda Turan was left with scratches and bruises. Schwartz was released without bail.
A judge rejected a prosecution request to hold Schwartz on $60,000 bail, but granted the Turans an order of protection barring him from contacting them.
The Turkish couple live in a townhouse that shares a common wall with Schwartz's home.
Cops said that following the fisticuffs, Schwartz scratched the Turans' car with a key.
Once Schwartz, a car dealer, bolted from the scene, the Turans called 911. Schwartz's son led cops to a Chabad House on nearby E. 69th St., where they found the suspect. Cops smelled alcohol on his breath, a source said.
Schwartz struggled with cops as they dragged him out of the synagogue in handcuffs. They drove him to his house, where his neighbors identified him as the culprit. As Schwartz threw a tantrum in the police car, his wife made a veiled threat to the victims, sources said.
"This is a majority Jewish neighborhood. We're going to get you back," Esther Schwartz told the Turans, the sources said.
While Schwartz was in jail over the weekend, his wife circulated a petition demanding the Turans' landlord evict them, neighbors said. About 20 neighbors signed it, but the Turans' landlords, Rusden and Saadet Dolan, refused.
"That's their opinion," Rusden Dolan told the Daily News.
With Amir Khan and Oren Yaniv
Photo: The front of a townhome where a Hasid man allegedly instigated a hate attack on his neighbor, a Turkish woman. (Todd Maisel/News)
