A Hasidic man who beat up and robbed an elderly civil engineer who was taking pictures at a building site got a break from a longer sentence after the victim asked a Brooklyn judge today to show the robber mercy.
Isidore Farkas, 40, attacked Harold Weinberg in August 2005 as the civil engineer was taking photos on behalf of a client whose home was damaged by the construction.
Farkas, who owned the building site, punched Weinberg, then 70, in the face – nearly costing him vision in one eye – and made off with the senior’s $800 camera.
Weinberg turned the other cheek in Brooklyn Supreme Court, asking the judge to temper justice with mercy.
“I am aware two families were hurt by the . . . event – his and mine,” Weinberg told Brooklyn Supreme Justice Vincent DelGiudice.
Farkas, who twice served probation on fraud convictions, faced a sentence range of 3½ to 15 years on the robbery conviction and DelGiudice settled at the low end despite what he called Farkas’ “life of theft.”
“I gave a sentence of four years because of Mr. Weinberg’s plea for mercy,’ DelGiudice said. “I was planning on giving a higher number.”
Farkas wept and cut short his own appeal for mercy, first apologizing and then barely enunciating, “I wish I could pull back that day.”
The Borough Park man was arrested in possession of Weinberg’s camera shortly after the attack, but police, after a horde of Hasids descended on the 66th Precinct – known in NYPD lore as “Fort Surrender”— charged him only with misdemeanor assault and cut him loose with a desk appearance ticket.
“Quite frankly, that’s unexplainable to me,” DelGiudice opined.
Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala made an impassioned plea for Farkas, likening his client’s desperation to avoid trouble with the Buildings Department to that of the Les Mierables character Jean Valjean, who stole a loaf of bread to feed starving children.
“Mr. Farkas is sorry, sorry to you, Mr. Weinberg,” Aidala said.
“Accepted,” Weinberg replied.
But DelGiudice was less forgiving, noting that Farkas’ wife testified falsely that she had taken the camera.
“He [Farkas] stole that camera to take away evidence he believed would show he did something wrong,” DelGiudice said. “This is no Victor Hugo novel.”