Two Bay Area men hit with hate crime charges in separate incidents
FILE - Generic gavel on wooden table.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced misdemeanor hate crime charges against two men accused in separate assaults.
In the most recent case, 62-year-old Richard Hanford of Los Gatos is accused of assaulting an Asian American woman as she was walking her dog on October 5 in the area of University Avenue.
Prosecutors said Hanford told the woman to move out of his way. When she told him he could move around her he allegedly told her, "This is America" and struck her, twice, in the face.
Then in a separate incident that occurred on Aug. 25, David Greenburg, 56, of Redwood City, spit at a 93-year-old San Jose Persian American man.
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Greenburg, a salesman, had knocked on the front door of the elderly man's San Jose home. Greenburg began talking to the elderly man who then told him he spoke limited English and he couldn't understand what the defendant was saying.
"No English, my son will call you back," the man said.
Prosecutors said Greenburg then kicked the screen door that the victim was standing behind and spat towards him.
Greenburg allegedly yelled for the victim to, "Go back to your (expletive) country." Greenburg then spat again in the victim's direction as he walked away.
Both are charged with misdemeanor hate crime charges. Hanford – who will be arraigned on November 16 - faces an additional battery charge while Greenburg faces an additional assault charge when he is arraigned on December 6. They each face incarceration for these offenses if convicted.
"Our community deeply values diversity, respects it, seeks it," DA Jeff Rosen said. "Intolerance is not an American ideal. In these cases, it is a crime."