FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Defendant Who Allegedly Shouted Homophobic Slurs
And Menaced Man with Knife in Subway Indicted for Hate Crimes
Arrested after Following Victim off Train While Carrying Knife
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced today that a 72-year-old man has been indicted on charges of menacing as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon, and other offenses for allegedly shouting homophobic slurs at a passenger on the A train and following him after he got off at the Nostrand Avenue station.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “In Brooklyn, everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or religion must be free to walk the streets and ride the subways without fear for their safety. Brooklyn’s beauty and strength lies in its diversity and we will not tolerate hate crimes of any kind.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Arnold Moody, 72, of Flatbush, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree menacing as a hate crime, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree aggravated harassment and related charges. He is being held on bail of $15,000 bond or $10,000 cash and is due back in court on October 18, 2017. He faces up to two to seven years in prison if convicted of the top count.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on August 9, 2017, at approximately 8:50 a.m., the victim boarded a Manhattan-bound A train at the Broadway Junction subway station in East New York, Brooklyn, when the defendant began verbally harassing and threatening the victim, using homophobic slurs, stating, in sum and substance “You’re a [expletive deleted], why are you standing like that? I’m going to cut you.”
The defendant continued to hurl verbal insults at the victim, and when the train pulled into the Nostrand Avenue subway station, the defendant allegedly followed the victim out onto the subway platform while brandishing a knife. However, several plainclothes police officers on the subway platform saw the defendant with the knife and quickly apprehended the defendant.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney T. Peter Choi of the District Attorney’s Civil Rights Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kelli M. Muse, Deputy Bureau Chief and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division and Assistant District Attorney Joseph P. Alexis, Chief of the Trial Division.
#
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt