FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Man Indicted for Assault as a Hate Crime
For Allegedly Beating Transgender Female at Shelter on Christmas Day
Faces Up To 15 Years in Prison
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced today that a man has been indicted on charges of assault as a hate crime and other offenses for allegedly hitting a transgendered woman with a chair inside of a Bedford-Stuyvesant homeless shelter.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This cowardly and unprovoked attack in which an innocent woman was assaulted simply because she is transgendered is despicable. In Brooklyn, we will not tolerate bias-motivated crimes of any kind. We now intend to hold the defendant accountable.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Kane Sekou, 40, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault as a hate crime and other related offenses. He was ordered held on $20,000 bail and to return to court on March 14, 2018. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on December 25, 2017, at approximately 6:15 p.m., the victim, a 31-year-old transgendered female, who is a resident of a homeless shelter located at 357 Marcus Garvey Boulevard, was walking down a hallway towards the bathroom when she heard someone running toward her from behind. She turned and saw the defendant, Kane Sekou, running toward her with a chair, which he allegedly used to strike the victim across the back. The defendant allegedly then yelled homophobic slurs at the victim.
The victim reported the attack to security and 911 was called. It is alleged that when the police arrived the defendant made additional homophobic slurs.
The case was investigated by New York City Police Department Detective John Hidalgo of the Hate Crimes Task Force.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Prabhalya Pulim, 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 District Attorney’s Investigations Division.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt