The young man who triggered a group attack that left two San Franciscans bloody and unconscious on the street pleaded guilty Tuesday, March 6 and entered into a plea bargain with the S.F. District Attorney’s office that avoids a jury trial.
Andrew Crawford admitted to two counts of assault with deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury for the Oct. 15, 2005 attack. Prior to the assault, Crawford had made several loud, anti-Semitic comments at the Pizza Pino restaurant where the two victims were dining, according to an employee and the victims, one of whom was Jewish.
The Jewish victim took exception to the comments and identified as a Jew. When the two men later left the restaurant, Crawford and several other men set upon them. Crawford was arrested on the scene, but the other members of the melee scattered and were never apprehended.
Crawford’s plea bargain with the D.A. calls for a sentence that could range from three to nine months in county jail, though he will seek to have this term spent in house arrest. It also calls for three years probation, a DNA sample to be provided to the criminal database and payment of a fine of several thousand dollars, court costs and restitution (likely to be paid to the city of San Francisco) — in addition to 50 hours of community service, possibly to the Jewish community.
Sentencing will take place in late April.
The arrangement does not, however, include a hate crime charge; the victims were both left groggy by the attack and could not recreate a perfect account of the evening, and the D.A.’s office told the Anti-Defamation League it did not believe the hate crime charge would stick in a jury trial.
This, obviously, was not music to regional ADL Director Jonathan Bernstein’s ears, but after years of back and forth in the case he was willing to take what he could get.
“Of course we would have preferred if this was prosecuted fully as a hate crime. But, nonetheless, quite a few actual hate crimes do not get prosecuted as hate crimes in this country because the prosecuting attorney has to look at all the facts and make a determination about their chances of a successful verdict,” he said.
“So many hate crimes don’t get prosecuted at all in this country so we are pleased this one will lead to something and justice will be served in the end.”
Calls to District Attorney Jean Roland and defense attorney James Collins were not returned as of press time. Crawford could not be reached for comment.
The victims both opted to keep their feelings about the plea bargain arrangement to themselves until after their forthcoming statements to the judge are weighed in determining Crawford’s sentence.
But the two longtime friends and Stanford alums both agreed that they were victims of a hate crime.
“Absolutely, that’s one thing I’m definitely comfortable saying. [The attack] was definitely motivated by Crawford’s personal opinions of people of the Jewish faith,” said the Jewish victim.