Stamford students arrested on hate crime charge

Stamford students arrested on hate crime charge


By Jeff MorganteenStaff Writer
Posted: 11/20/2008 02:43:03 AM EST


STAMFORD - Four Westhill High School students were arrested last week and charged with yelling racial slurs at black middle schoolers and a crossing guard on the West Side, police said.
The four male students shouted ethnic insults from a moving car several times last week while on their way to school in the morning, police said.
A group of students from Cloonan Middle School and a crossing guard reported separate incidents, Lt. Sean Cooney said.
Lucas Alexander Rossi, 18, of 44 Euclid Ave., was charged Friday with ridicule of race, creed and color, a bias crime that carries a maximum sentence of a $50 fine and an optional 30-day prison sentence. Police charged three other occupants in the same crime but did not identify them because they are younger than 18.
Witnesses gave officers a description of the car and a partial license plate number, Cooney said. Because the incidents occurred in the early morning and along a certain route, officers speculated that the car was headed to Westhill, Cooney said.
Officers found a car that matched the description in the high school parking lot Friday morning and found four occupants. Each was given a summons.
The four are slated to appear Dec. 1 in state Superior Court in Stamford.
- Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or 964-2215.





Source:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_11029014