A former member of the Jewish Shomrim street patrol/neighborhood watch group won’t serve a day in prison for beating a black teen in 2010. The teen was walking through a heavily Jewish Baltimore neighborhood when he was stopped and assaulted.
3 Years Probation, No Prison Sentence
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A former member of the Jewish Shomrim street patrol/neighborhood watch group won’t serve a day in prison for beating a black teen in 2010. The teen was walking through a heavily Jewish Baltimore neighborhood when he was stopped and assaulted.
Instead of prison, Eliyahu Werdesheim was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, a three-year suspended sentence and was ordered to "perform community service and write essays for the court about different neighborhoods in Baltimore," the AP reports.
At the time of the assault, Werdesheim was a member of Shomrim and was on patrol when it took place.
Werdesheim, 24, was convicted of second-degree assault and false imprisonment charges in May.
Werdesheim faced a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years, but prosecutors recommended a three-year suspended sentence along with three years of probation, anger management and community service, CBS reported.
Werdesheim’s victim, who was 15 at the time of the attack, told police after the attack that Werdesheim shouted, “you don’t belong here,” and then struck him in the head with a heavy two-way radio.
Werdesheim claimed he hit the boy self-defense, claiming the boy was carrying a board with protruding nails he. Werdesheim testified that the boy been trying to open doors of parked cars and had walked up to houses as if to check if they were occupied. When Werdesheim followed the boy in his car, the boy allegedly picked up the board and continued walking with it. Werdeseim said that he got out of the car and confronted the boy, at which point the assault took place.
The judge at bench trial found Werdesheim guilty and chastized him for, in part, getting out of his car and approaching the boy as he walked away on the public sidewalk.