A felony assault charge against the 23-year old former member of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch group accused of beating a black teenager has been dismissed, furthering aggravating tensions between blacks and Jews in Baltimore.
The teen’s attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon, argues not only was the felony assault charge against Werdesheim warranted, but federal charges should have been brought against him as well.
The teen was walking through a mostly Jewish Northwest Baltimore neighborhood on Nov. 19 when the alleged attack occurred.
“You don’t f—ing belong here. Get out of here,” Werdersheim allegedly told the teen.
Twenty-three-year old Eliyahu Eliezer Werdesheim, who was a volunteer with the mostly Jewish patrol group Shomrim, had been accused of beating a 15-year-old youth last November with a radio, resulting in lacerations to the boy’s head and a broken wrist.
One of the first official acts of Gregg Bernstein, the newly elected Baltimore City state’s attorney who was officially sworn in earlier this month, was his decision to drop the felony assault charge against Werdesheim during a hearing on Jan. 20. However, he allowed the misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment, second degree assault and possession of a deadly weapon to stand.
Bernstein decided to charge Werdesheim’s 20- year old brother, Avi, with the same misdemeanor offenses his older brother faces. The two brothers – who are both dual citizens of the United States and Israel – along with another man who was not charged with a crime, approached the teen while he was standing in the 3300 block of Fallstaff Road.
Bernstein’s office said in a statement that the new charges against the younger Werdesheim are the result of a continuing investigation. If convicted on all charges, they both could conceivably receive a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Racial tension between blacks and Jews stirred during the campaign became more strained in the wake of the beating of which Werdesheim is accused.
