A US jury has indicted a local man (55) on hate crime charges for calling a Sikh man “Osama” and then injuring him severely by hitting him with his truck last year.
Joseph Caleca of Long Island here was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned before acting Queens County Supreme Court justice Barry Kron on nine counts charging him with attempted murder as hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and leaving the scene without reporting after hitting Sandeep Singh (29).
Caleca, if convicted, faces up to 25 years in prison. He is accused of an “unprovoked” attack that had allegedly begun with the defendant’s driving up to Sandeep Singh and his friends last July in a New York neighbourhood just aftermidnight. The accused was arrested initially in August 2014.