He hurled racial slurs at his neighbor. Now, this Barrington dentist is on trial again.

PROVIDENCE – Barrington dentist Dr. Richard E. Gordon, who sparked protests in 2020 after he hurled racial epithets at his Muslim neighbor, returned to court Monday for trial.

Gordon, 74, is appealing his 2021 conviction for simple assault and disorderly conduct in the Aug. 3, 2020, confrontation with his neighbor, Bahram Pahlavi, over a boundary stake.

Robert Clark Corrente, Gordon’s lawyer, accused Pahlavi of whipping the community into a frenzy that led to his client being ostracized.

“Maybe they’re offensive. Maybe they’re wrong. But they’re not a crime,” Corrente said of curse words and racial slurs Gordon yelled that day.

“There's no question that the only person who got injured that day was Dr Gordon,” Corrente continued.

But Assistant Attorney General Keith Hoffmann said Gordon committed a bigoted assault, coming at Pahlavi with flailing arms and insults, including “[Expletive] you, n-word” and calling his neighbor a “raghead.”

Pahlavi is a member of the Iranian royal family now exiled from that country.

`I was scared' Neighbor testifies after Gordon began yelling slurs

Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini, who is presiding over the bench trial, heard Pahlavi’s account of the incident.

Pahlavi told of waking up that morning to see Gordon, who he’d met only once, head out for a jog.

He and his wife, Dr. Iman Ali, learned around 2 p.m. that a surveyor’s stake placed on Gordon’s side of the road was missing. They reviewed video footage and saw that the stake had been there earlier that morning.

His wife asked him to replace the stake, which was for the planned construction of a garage. Pahlavi said that he hammered the stake back in and took three cellphone photos of it, only to hear Gordon shouting curses at him while running toward him.

“I was scared, to be honest,” Pahlavi said under questioning by Hoffmann.

The scene became chaotic as Gordon thrashed and yelled before breaking the stake and throwing it at him, he said.

In a cellphone video shot by Pahlavi, he can be heard telling Gordon he was rude and saying “Get off me. Get off me.”

Pahlavi was not injured in the encounter and said he was not sure how Gordon “injured himself.”

In a second video shown by Assistant Attorney General John  Moreira, Pahlavi says “You’ve revealed yourself, Richard.” He told the court he had never been treated with such disdain and hatred.

He said he was not aware that the Gordons had a problem with the stake, as it had been there at least 10 days.

`Complete baloney'

Under cross-examination, Corrente asked Pahlavi about the number of cameras he had installed on the property, including three aimed across the street at the Gordons’ property.

Why hadn’t they turned over more footage of the incident to the police? Corrente asked.

“We gave them all the footage we had,” Pahlavi said.

“All the footage from that day just vanished, huh? Corrente commented.

More: Barrington man arrested after racially charged argument with neighbor

Pahlavi explained that sometimes the cameras aren’t triggered.

Corrente questioned why Pahlavi hadn’t told the first officer to arrive about being struck by Gordon in his first report.

Why had he said that Gordon was hurt reaching for the stake as he hammered it into the ground? “That was complete baloney,” Corrente said.

Pahlavi acknowledged that Gordon wasn’t there when he hammered it in.

In all, Pahlavi gave three different accounts, Corrente said.

“Were you truthful with the police?” Corrente said.

“Yes,” Pahlavi said, adding that it was his perception of the encounter.

“It’s not your perception. It’s a lie,” Corrente retorted.

And how could a 70-year-old man snap such a stake? Corrente asked, urging Pahlavi to try snapping it himself.

“That was baloney too,” Corrente said.

Corrente asked, too, about Pahlavi’s testimony that it took him weeks to view the videos because he was so traumatized. How could that be when they were promptly turned over to police?

Pahlavi said his wife and lawyer must have viewed them on his cellphone. His wife then posted them to Facebook, sparking an outcry and protests.

District Court Judge Stephen Isherwood in 2021 declined to sentence Gordon under the Rhode Island Hate Crimes Sentencing Act as sought by state prosecutors. The judge concluded that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gordon’s crimes were racially motivated.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI dentist accused in racist assault on trial again. What to expect.