Last week in Placerville, California, a husband and wife accused of beating a San Francisco man at a Lake Tahoe beach while shouting racial slurs have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors after a judge dismissed hate-crime charges against the husband: Couple plead guilty in beating of Indian man, judge finds no evidence of hate crime. How exactly was this not a hate crime?
Joseph and Georgia Silva were charged with assaulting Vishal Wadhwa, an Indian American, in July 2007. Police said Wadhwa approached them after they yelled racial insults at his fiancee and her cousin. Georgia Silva then knocked Wadhwa to the ground and her husband kicked him in the face three times, calling him names while they attacked him. Wadhwa suffered facial fractures and a broken orbit bone in one eye.
Silva was initially charged with felony assault and hate crimes, but the judge ruled that prosecutors had failed to produce enough evidence that the attack was motivated by racial prejudice or that it involved enough force for a felony charge. Ah, I see. So they just happened to be shouting racial slurs at Wadhwa while they were beating the crap out of him. That's racist!
Joseph Silva pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count and his wife to four, each punishable by up to six months in jail. They're scheduled for sentencing on September 24. What a load of crap.
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