Cabbie Stabbing Suspect Indicted for Hate Crime
An arts student accused of slashing a Muslim taxi driver's neck has been indicted on hate-crime charges, prosecutors said Monday as the student's lawyer lashed out at media interest in a case that comes amid debate over attitudes about Muslims and a plan to build a mosque near ground zero.
Michael Enright, the 21-year-old accused of telling the driver to "consider this a checkpoint" before allegedly stabbing him last week, waived his right to be in court as his indictment was announced Monday. He was being held without bail in a psychiatric ward until an arraignment next month on charges of attempted murder and assault, both as hate crimes.
Authorities said Enright, who traveled to Afghanistan last spring with a group to promote interfaith understanding, uttered an Arabic greeting before making his "checkpoint" remark and attacking driver Ahmed H. Sharif with a folding knife Aug. 24. Police have said Enright was drunk.
Sharif, who is from Bangladesh, was wounded in the face and neck but survived. He has said he has no doubt the attack was fueled by anti-Muslim bias.
The allegations have mystified some who know Enright, a senior at the School of Visual Arts who lives with his parents in suburban Brewster, N.Y. He had volunteered with an interfaith group that helped pay to send him to Afghanistan as part of a video project for his school. As part of the work, Enright spent time embedded with U.S. troops.
When arrested, Enright was carrying two notebooks that described his experiences in Afghanistan, along with an empty bottle of scotch, police have said.
Investigators obtained a warrant to search Enright's six journals, but did not find any anti-Muslim statements. The handwriting was difficult to decipher, and Kelly said officials have not done an in-depth analysis of the journals, but the cursory look did not reveal a motive or a deep-rooted racism.
The journals do, however, detail Enright's drinking, and there was some indication that he had been in Alcoholics Anonymous, Kelly said. But it hasn't yet been determined if he has a serious drinking problem.
Enright's lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, declined to comment on the charges.
But he lambasted unspecified reporters for attempting to visit Enright in custody and raised the "heinous and egregious" prospect that journalists might have peeked into a prior Enright lawyer's file when it was inadvertently left for a time on a courthouse bench last week.
Enright has refused to speak with reporters, and Fisher said he might ask a judge to bar media representatives from trying to visit the student.
"I don't think that is really an acceptable practice," he said. A judge noted his remarks but took no action.
Fisher declined to be more specific about the basis for his concerns about the file, and Enright's prior attorney didn't immediately return a phone call Monday evening.
Enright's arrest came amid an emotional, worldwide discussion of the
Muslims have been worshipping at the Islamic center site since last year, but it got new attention recently after developers sought to move ahead on an expansion that would include a community center.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports the proposal, has linked the furor over the mosque proposal to the cab driver's stabbing.
"This should never have happened and hopefully won't happen again," Bloomberg said at a news conference with Sharif last week. "Hopefully, people will understand that we can have a discourse."
Bloomberg met with Sharif at City Hall on Thursday.
There are nearly 7 million Muslims and more than 1,200 mosques in the U.S. but a CBS News poll found 71 percent of Americans say it's inappropriate to build a mosque so close to ground zero.
If convicted, Enright could face up to 25 years in prison.