Middletown police have charged a man with a hate crime in connection with an attack on a Wesleyan professor.
The incident occurred Monday evening in front of LaBoca Restaurant on Main Street. Officers were alerted to a disturbance and saw a man running from the scene.
The victim told police he was waiting for a car to leave a parking space in front of the restaurant and was about to pull his car into the space, when a man on a motorcycle sped the wrong way down Main Street and took the parking space. The victim got out of his car to complain when two men, both wearing red baseball caps approached him and told him to get back in his car.
According to the victim, one of the men, later identified by police as Jason Levesque, began to assault him and shouted racial slurs at him during the attack.
Levesque, 32, fled on foot, but was found a short time later in an "employee only" room at LaBoca Restaurant, according to police. Officers found Levesque's red baseball cap, with the word "NOMADS" on it, nearby.
Officers asked Levesque if he was a member of the Nomads Outlaw biker gang, but Levesque told them he didn't know what they were talking about, police said.
Levesque also told police that the victim threatened him with a gun, but no weapon was found and the victim told police he has never owned a gun.
Levesque is charged with second-degree intimidation based on bigotry or bias, breach of peace and interfering with an officer. He was released on $25,000 bond and is scheduled to be in court July 3.
Photo Credit: Middletown Police