Jeffrey Burgess apologized Friday to Ankur Mehta for breaking his jaw at a South Hills Red Robin because he thought he was an Arab.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer then sentenced him to three years of probation, four months of home confinement, 50 hours of community service and completion of a course at the Center for Victims on Pittsburgh’s South Side.
She also ordered him to get treatment for alcoholism, which his lawyer said contributed to the attack on Mr. Mehta on Nov. 22, 2016.
The sentence was part of a plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office. Burgess, 56, of Bethel Park, pleaded guilty in November to violating the federal hate crimes law.
"Truly I would like to show my remorse for my actions on that day," Burgess said Friday.
Mr. Mehta was not in court, but the judge noted that he suffered a fractured jaw, a head injury and a lost tooth in the attack and required medical treatment.
The judge said the crime was serious and read FBI statistics indicating assaults against minorities and immigrants have increased nationwide since the election of Donald Trump.
"Certainly this was not appropriate behavior, in fact [it was] shameful behavior," Judge Fischer told Burgess.
But she also agreed that probation with the other terms she imposed was appropriate. She noted that Burgess will be nearly 60 when his probation is over, an age when he is unlikely to engage in more crimes. She also said he has been a good employee, comes from a solid family and has a college degree but has long suffered with alcoholism.
"To your credit you recognize that," she said.
She said she'll hold another hearing to impose a restitution order after the parties submit costs for Mr. Mehta's treatment. His care has been complicated by the fact that he was also injured in a serious car crash since the incident.
Burgess is the second person to be prosecuted in this district under the federal hate crimes statute passed in 2009. The first was Ryan Kyle, a white man who threw Kevin Lockett, who is black, onto subway tracks and beat him unconscious at the Wood Street T station in 2015. He is serving three years in federal prison.
Burgess' attack on Mr. Mehta happened at the Red Robin in South Hills Village while Mr. Mehta was minding his own business, wearing earphones and listening to music while playing on his computer tablet.
Burgess, who was drunk, was sitting at the next table and began glancing over at Mr. Mehta, who avoided eye contact. When his music stopped, he said he heard Burgess calling him a "sand [expletive]" and other slurs, according to the FBI. Burgess also said that since Mr. Trump had become president, he no longer had to "put up with you people."
Mr. Mehta is of Indian descent but Burgess apparently thought he was an Arab.
Witnesses said they also heard Burgess make slurs against "[expletive] foreigners."
When Mr. Mehta turned away, Burgess punched him in the back of the head and kept hitting him in the head, neck and throat. When Mr. Mehta grabbed Burgess's hands to try to defend himself, Burgess taunted him, saying "What you are going to do?"
The restaurant manager called 911 and police arrested Burgess.
Prosecutors said that Burgess later told a friend that he "probably" did what he was accused of doing. But he also told the friend that he had once worked in New York City as a bellman and dealt with many Arabs. He didn't like them, he said, because they treated him rudely and didn't give tips.
First Published: April 6, 2018, 4:34 p.m.
