Two gay-bashing members of the Orthodox neighborhood watchdog group Shomrim were sentenced to just three years probation and 150 hours community service Tuesday after they admitted to taking part in a vicious Williamsburg attack.
Pinchas Braver, 22, and Abraham Winkler, 42, will also have to pay $1,400 in restitution to Taj Patterson, who they brutalized in Dec. 2013 — yelling anti-gay slurs at the man as he walked alone before jumping him and beating him mercilessly.
Patterson, now 25, was left with a broken orbital socket and torn retina. He remains blind in the left eye. He was not in court Tuesday.
Braver and Winkler tried to dodge the plea condition that their community service hours be served in a “culturally diverse neighborhood,” outside of their own Hasidic community. Instead, the duo asked to log hours at Chai Lifeline, an organization for sick Jewish children.
The sentencing was adjourned in order to allow prosecutors to investigate Chai, but prosecutors said Tuesday the defendants needed to choose another organization that fit the guidelines of the plea.
If Braver and Winkler are unable to find a program within the next 30 days, they will be assign one.
The men faced up to 25 years in prison on charges of gang assault before they pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful imprisonment in late May.
Patterson has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the NYPD for an unspecified amount, saying that his attackers were given “favorable and preferential treatment” by the NYPD following his assault.
Five men were originally charged in the beating, but the charges against two of them — Aharon Hollender and Joseph Fried — were dropped in 2014 and 2015.
The remaining defendant, Mayer Heskovic, has opted for trial. He will return to court on Aug. 23.
