Man charged with hate crimes in verbal, physical assault of Cupertino store employee

CUPERTINO (CBS SF) -- A 61-year-old man has been charged with felony hate crimes after he allegedly both physically and verbally assaulted a female employee outside a phone store in Cupertino.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced that a variety of charges have been filed against Clifford Stewart in the June 1st incident.

Stewart faces assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, hate crimes, vandalism and threat against a police officer charges at his arraignment Friday afternoon.

Authorities said Stewart removed a T-Mobile sign from the walkway leading to the store located on Stevens Creek Boulevard and tossed it into the street.

A 38-year-old Hispanic T-Mobile employee witnessed the crime as did her co-worker, a 33-year-old Asian man. 

When they left the store to retrieve the sign, Stewart immediately reacted by yelling to both of them "(expletive) Chinese, you don't belong here" and "stupid Mexicans."

When the female employee told Stewart she was going to call the police, he kicked her in the stomach and punched her in the face so violently that she temporarily lost sight in her left eye. 

She was later transported to Stanford Hospital for treatment. The extent of her injuries remains unknown at this time.

"Hate crimes send an ugly and ignorant message to our community that certain people are not welcome here," Rosen said in a news release. "My response is that I will do everything in my power to hold criminal racists accountable in court. Hate is not welcome here."  

When a sheriff's deputy arrived on scene and arrested him, Clifford Stewart threatened to kill the deputy and said to him: "All you piece of (expletive deleted) people sneak into this country, have a baby, and get a free apartment."