Biker beatdown was 6-on-1 attack
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By Georgett Roberts, Larry Celona and Laura Italiano October 5, 2013
nypost.com
Robert Sims is the first biker arrested and charged in the brutal beating of Alexian Lien (inset).
Photo: G.N. Miller
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One biker shattered the Range Rover’s window, then five or six more dragged the driver out, pummeling his head and body with fists, boots and helmets.
A week after a rampaging motorcycle gang’s stunning caught-on-video attack on an Internet exec and his family, Manhattan prosecutors have released the first blow-by-blow account based on newly-surfaced cell phone camera footage and photos.
As many as six bikers preyed on victim dad Alexian Lien, kicking him in the head even as he tried to crawl to safety, prosecutors said as the first of the accused fist-swingers, Robert Sims, 35, of Brooklyn, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Saturday night on charges of gang assault and felony assault.
Sims was identified on video and photographs by his distinctive black leather jacket, grey backpack, his helmet, which featured the number, “78,” and his grey and white sneakers — which prosecutors say Sims used to kick the cowering dad’s head and body.
“The defendant is clearly seen stomping on [Lien’s] head,” assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass told Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Diana Boyar, who set a whopping $100,000 cash bail.
Sims — whose rap sheet includes a 2002 bust for car theft, and gun possession, drug possession and samauri sword possession in 1998, according to sources — has admitted he’s been caught on camera, the prosecutor said.
His lawyer, Luther Williams, insisted his client is innocent and said the bikers only went after Lien to prevent him from leaving the scene after striking one of the other bikers with his Rover.
Sims is also charged with weapons possession. Prosecutors did not name the weapon, but Williams speculated that officials mean his client’s helmet.
“What weapon? Unless they are suggesting the helmets are weapons,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, a source close to the case told The Post that the off-duty NYPD undercover detective who stood by Lien was attacked — and who only came forward Wednesday — is insisting that the violence broke with blinding speed, and that he believed blowing his cover could endanger his own life.
“It all happened so fast,” said the source, who talked directly to the undercover and spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity. “It wasn’t apparent what was happening till the very end — then it was a feeding frenzy.”
Added Detectives Endowment Association president Michael Palladino, “Leading a double life is not easy for undercovers.”
Palladino pointed to the case of Detective Gescard Isnora, the undercover cop who blew his own cover and fired the first shot in the 50-bullet fusillade that killed Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club in 2006.
“Detective Isnora was on-duty and got fired for stepping out of his undercover role,” Palladino said. “This undercover was off-duty and has every reason to expect the same if something goes wrong.”
The motorcycle-loving undercover — whose work is being described as dangerous and “deep undercover” — had joined last Sunday’s 300-rider rally, and admits watching and doing nothing as Lien was attacked in front of his wife and 2-year-old daughter near 178th Street.
The undercover has had his badge and gun yanked and remains under departmental investigation after only coming forward as a witness on Wednesday night.
A second cop was along for the ride, multiple sources have said, and is also under departmental investigation after coming forward only days after the incident.
Meanwhile, the man allegedly caught on video unleashing the motorcycle rampage — Reginald Chance, 38, of Brooklyn — was also charged with first degree gang assault and assault, along with criminal mischief for allegedly swinging his chrome helmet repeatedly into Lien’s window.
Chance spent Saturday in lineups at the 33rd Precinct in Washington Heights, where the police investigation is based.
Modal Trigger Reginald Chance |
