Bat Attack Victim Testifies

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The New York Sun

The testimony of Glenn Moore is likely to linger with the jurors. The 23-year-old Army veteran explained yesterday how he hid beside a stranger’s porch as a group of youths hunted after him.

He was in Howard Beach, Queens, a neighborhood he said he did not know well, and it was well after midnight on June 29. One of the youths found him, and Mr. Moore took off, he testified. A short brick barrier – nothing more than a yard decoration – stood in his way. He tripped and fell. He heard someone shout a racial epithet. He felt a baseball bat strike him.

Mr. Moore, who is black, is the central witness in the prosecution’s case against Nicholas Minucci, who is white. The defendant is charged with assault as a hate crime for allegedly slugging

Mr. Moore in the head with a 34-inch aluminum bat.

Over the course of about three hours in state Supreme Court in Queens, Mr. Moore spoke of a checkered past, one that included jumping subway turnstiles and stealing a car. He acknowledged that he was known as a troublemaker and a drinker during his 10-month stint in the Army, which ended with an honorable discharge. He told how, on the night of the attack, he initially trotted off slowly, falling behind his two friends, when the much heavier Mr. Minucci, 19, jumped from his truck, used a racial epithet, and chased after him.

“I was running because a white guy was chasing me with a baseball bat,” Mr. Moore said. “I didn’t know what for. I was trying to get away.”

Mr. Moore, who was then living in South Ozone Park and drawing on his mother for financial support, admitted yesterday that he had walked through nearby Lindenwood into Howard Beach with two friends in order to steal a car. He explained that he was simply serving as “a lookout” for his two friends, one of whom, Richard Pope, has already testified during the trial.

The attorney for Mr. Minucci, Albert Gaudelli, told jurors last week that his client was filling the role of a community watch when he chased Mr. Moore. Yesterday, Mr. Gaudelli sought to portray Mr. Moore as a criminal. Under cross-examination, Mr. Moore admitted to jumping subway turnstiles on two occasions as a youth.

More seriously, Mr. Moore pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail for stealing a vehicle in 2003.

“I didn’t steal a car,” said Mr. Moore, referring to the 2003 episode. “The car was on. The keys were in the ignition. I got in and drove it. It’s considered stealing, but I never knew how to break in and jack it.”

Mr. Moore testified that by the time Mr. Minucci first glared at him from the open window of his truck, he and his friends had already set aside their plans to steal a car. Mr. Gaudelli questioned why they had come to Howard Beach at 3 a.m. if not to steal something.

Mr. Moore’s answer seemed to suggest that only chance had brought him into the neighborhood where a notorious 1986 racial attack occurred. That incident resulted in the death of a black man who was struck by a car while fleeing his assailants.

“We just kept on walking in a straight line into Howard Beach,” Mr. Moore said. “I don’t recall which direction we walked. I’m not familiar with the area.”


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