NEW YORK — A Brooklyn couple claims a Hasidic safety patrol attacked them and falsely accused them of making antisemitic remarks when they challenged them for not wearing masks at the height of the pandemic.
Paulo and Clelia Pinho say in a lawsuit that on May 10, 2020, members of the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, a group of Hasidic civilians also known as Shomrim, converged on them, beat them up, broke Clelia’s arm, and then lied to police by claiming the couple blamed Jews for the spread of COVID-19, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
At the time, members of the Hasidic community had been protesting mask mandates set by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Menacing and harassment charges against the couple were dismissed more than a year later on Sept. 30, 2021 — but not before the Pinhos received threats, lost work and were vilified by de Blasio and in the press.
Pinho’s lawyer Kenneth Belkin said: “There were two hardworking people who were trying to survive the pandemic. The safety patrol was operating like a militia. They attacked them, and then lied about it.”
The case mirrors that of Taj Patterson, who was beaten and partially blinded in a 2013 encounter in Brooklyn with the Shomrim. A judge on Sept. 19 awarded Patterson $4.5 million.
The safety patrol defaulted in the Patterson case, admitting it had no insurance. Belkin said he was told recently by the group’s lawyer that the organization still does not have liability insurance — in apparent contravention of city rules requiring it to have insurance as a recipient of city funding.
Megan Muoio, a lawyer representing the safety patrol, did not respond to emails. In court papers, the safety patrol denied the Pinhos’ allegations.
“Plaintiffs were arrested by the NYPD because they hurled antisemitic insults at members of the Hasidic community. … Therefore, the NYPD had probable cause to arrest the Plaintiffs,” Muoio wrote.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA’s office confirmed the charges were dismissed and sealed, but declined to comment further.
The ordeal unfolded as the Pinhos drove home to Jackson Heights, Queens, after work on May 10, 2020, and came across large groups of Hasidic men not wearing masks on Bedford Avenue and Ross Street in Williamsburg, their lawsuit says.
The court papers describe what happened after Paulo Pinho began recording them with his cellphone and repeatedly asked members of the crowd why they weren’t wearing masks.
Within a few minutes, four SUVs arrived, lights flashing, and 10 men emerged, including some wearing Shomrim jackets, the lawsuit says. They surrounded Pinho and demanded he leave.
Pinho refused. The men allegedly started shoving him, and one of them knocked his phone out of his hand. He was tripped and fell to the ground where a number of the Shomrim sat on him and called the police, the lawsuit said.
“I yelled for help. I said I couldn’t breathe,” Pinho told the Daily News. “There was a guy who weighed 300 pounds or more sitting on me. They were stepping on my hands and ankles. They took my glasses and my cellphone. They had no justification to hold me.”
Clelia Pinho came to her husband’s aid, the lawsuit says. She begged them to release her husband and tried to get to him, but one man grabbed or hit her, and medical records show she had a fractured left forearm.
When the police reached the scene, the Shomrim claimed the Pinhos provoked the encounter and made antisemitic remarks, the lawsuit says.
Two witnesses, Elkonoh Grunhut and Hilel Cohen, later claimed Paulo said: “The mayor said the Jews are why we all are getting sick,” court records show. A third witness, Moshe Rosenbaum, allegedly quoted Paulo as saying: “This is why we are all sick.”
Paulo, though, said in an interview he made no such remark. “I didn’t say anything about the mayor or Jews. I just said, ‘You guys aren’t wearing masks, and there are people dying.’”
Paulo was ignored and arrested. Clelia was taken to Woodhull Hospital to be treated for the broken arm.
The NYPD labeled the case against them a hate crime. In the aftermath, de Blasio hammered the Pinhos in public that May 11, calling their actions “absolutely unacceptable in every way.”
“It’s something that expresses hate,” de Blasio said the next day. “The two perpetrators have been arrested by NYPD and we are treating this incident as a hate crime so there are serious consequences.”
Pinho believes de Blasio used the incident to try to make nice with the Hasidic community after he criticized a failure to wear masks weeks earlier.
“He knew nothing about what happened. He didn’t know we were actually the victims,” Paulo said. “He said stupid things to try to protect himself.”
Belkin says the Pinhos tried to file a cross-complaint against the Shomrim for the assault but the NYPD never took it. The NYPD press office did not respond to an email.
The press coverage was also negative. In a social media post, the Daily News called them “bigoted.”
“There were news articles saying horrible things about us, making us look like criminals who did this,” Paulo said. “I thought these people would show up at my door.”
Paulo was so stressed by the experience he checked himself into a psychiatric facility for 15 days, the lawsuit said. Clelia had to see a physical therapist for her left arm and has numbness in the hand.
The couple had to trudge back and forth to court over the next year before the DA’s office finally dismissed the case, “in the interests of justice,” according to Belkin.
Belkin believes the case was not dismissed sooner because of the public attention. “From the outset, the prosecutor didn’t find the allegations credible,” the lawyer said.
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(John Annese contributed to this report.)
