Mugging Victim, 103, Has Better Day Than Suspect

New York Times ^ | October 6, 2009 | REBECCA WHITE

[ETL]

The victim, Rose Morat, is now 103, still vigorous as she greeted reporters on Tuesday, hours before the man accused of attacking her and two other women [on March 4, 2007] was convicted of robbery, burglary and assault in State Supreme Court in Queens. ..."

The defendant, Jack Rhodes, 47, was found guilty at the end of a four-week jury trial before Justice Gregory L. Lasak. Mr. Rhodes was accused of mugging Ms. Morat on March 4, 2007, in the lobby of her building. The attack was captured on security videotape and widely disseminated, making Ms. Morat something of a cause célèbre. Mr. Rhodes was also convicted of assaulting Solange Elizee, 87, and Angela Khan, 53. ..."

“I told the judge, I said, ‘Just tell him to smile and I will recognize him.’ And he did,” she said. “I met him downstairs [in her building's lobby] and he smiled. I thought he was a nice man. He opened the door and then he hit me.”

Ms. Morat, who will be 104 on Feb. 4, spends her time playing bridge with friends, going to church and playing bingo.

“I’m going to be 104 soon, God willing,” she said. “Why am I here? I don’t know. People say it’s because I am an inspiration, I don’t know. Maybe I am.”

[ETL]

-----------------------------

"Rose Morat (8 April 1906–) is a 102-year-old New York City resident and retired telecommunications worker.[1] On the afternoon of March 4, 2007 she was viciously assaulted and mugged in the lobby of her building on the way to church. A grainy video captured the assault, during which the alleged attacker, Jack Rhodes, 44,[2] struck her several times in the face. The video has been broadcast by media outlets world wide and has incited outrage among New Yorkers.[3]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Morat

-----------------------------

Video: CBS News coverage of the story, including video the March 2007 vicious beating inside an elevator (approx 1 min):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHYSfQaUC-4

-----------------------------

Jack Rhodes, 47 at the
time of the robbery/beating

[gibsosa]

I don’t want to be banned, so I won’t say what I am thinking...AARGH

[ETL]

Re: “Jack Rhodes, 47 at the time of the robbery/beating”

Correction: the SB was about 45 at the time. He is now 47.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Kick the brute down a few flights of stairs?

[netmilsmom]

>>Kick the brute down a few flights of stairs?<<

Sprinkled with glass?

[ETL]

Correction #2: “including video of the March 2007 vicious beating inside an elevator”

The beating of course took place in the *lobby* of her apartment bldg.

BTW: these are my own errors I am correcting. I hope they are the last. I’m tired. Got to get to bed!

[FLmerchantmariner]

Mozambique drill

[EDINVA]

Rhodes is no longer a “suspect” as the headline says. He’s a convict! Wonderful she lived long enough to see him convicted.

[ETL]

Rhodes is no longer a “suspect” as the headline says. He’s a convict!

That's the New York Slimes for you! They're always doing things like this.

[fieldmarshaldj]

They’re gonna love him in prison.

[Lauren BaRecall]

I’m with you! What I would say!!! LOL!

I’m glad Rose got her justice.

[Moe Tzadik]

Lemme guess, an obama supporter?

[ETL]

INTERVIEWER: About your white grandmother and how there was a time when even she feared black men and that she even occasionally would use a racial or ethnic stereotype. What does she say now about you being so close to the presidency?

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, you know, she was extremely proud and the point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, you know, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way. And that's just the nature of race in our society.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/7636/

[az.b1bbomberfxr]

Where is Jesse Jackson crying how blacks are so unfairly treated in the criminal justice system?

[Clintonfatigued]

New York ping

[Rembrandt]

Looks like a hate crime to me - give him an extra 20 years!

[neverdem]

"The jury determined that the assaults could be classified as hate crimes under the provisions of New York State’s Hate Crimes Act of 2000 because of the victims’ ages. Sentencing is to take place on Nov. 12; Mr. Rhodes faces up to 90 years in prison."

The New York State’s Hate Crimes Act of 2000 must be a real piece of work. Aggravating circumstances are appropriate considerations, but I'd like most of this Hate Crime jurisprudence repealed. Hate is an emotion. How do you prove an emotion beyond a shadow of a doubt?

[j-damn]

*I don’t want to be banned, so I won’t say what I am thinking...AARGH*

I bet you’re thinking something like I am thinking, like, “gosh, one can almost see why lynch mobs were sometimes formed back in the good old days”.

[ETL]

“sometimes” is the key word there. Hopefully, they hung white scumbags like this, too.

[csense]

Kick the brute down a few flights of stairs?
...Sprinkled with glass?

...doused with alcohol