July 14 - Punks who blinded teen in anti-gay attack at Brooklyn high school may get only 18 months detention

[MorrisBX]

Rose Ulysse, mom of 14-year-old beating victim Kardin Ulysse, outside Brooklyn Family Court.

The pint-sized punks who pummeled a teen in a school cafeteria leaving him blind in one eye are facing a slap on the wrist for their anti-gay motivated attack, officials said Friday.

Dressed like choirboys in their Sunday best, the little hooligans were arraigned in Brooklyn Family Court on assault as a hate crime with their lawyers entering not guilty pleas.

The maximium penalty they face for the maiming is just 18 months in a juvenile facility if they're convicted, officials said. They would face considerably more jail time under the hate crime statute if they were adults.

The 14-year-old victim, Kardin Ulysse, did not attend the brief proceeding. He underwent a corneal on transplant on his right eye this week, his fifth surgery since the vicious attack at Roy H. Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach on June 5.

"These are not children," the boy's father Pierre Ulysse said referring to the perps. "They're animals. Unfortunately I can't do to them what I want to do."

"These kids get to go home and our son is suffering with one eye," Ulysse added.

Lawyer Sanford Rubinstein holds up a photo of Kardin Ulysse, 14, who was brutally beaten in the cafeteria of Roy H. Mann High School in Brooklyn. Kardin has undergone 5 surgeries since the attack, which left him blind in one eye.

Kardin, an eighth-grader, was set upon by the two seventh-graders ages 12 and 13, who were calling him a "fucking faggot," a "pussy," a 'transvestite" and "gay," according to a Department of Education incident report.

Sources said Kardin was wearing a wig that belonged to his mother as a goof when he was set upon. The beatdown was captured on a surveillance camera.

"They gave him a real bad beating," said a knowledgeable source. "They keep hitting him continually as (Kardin) is running around tables trying to get away."

Kardin's eyeglasses were shattered and the lens shards may have damaged the cornea.

The Ulysse family has put the city on notice that they will file a $16 million negligence lawsuit for failing to supervise the cafeteria. There were female food servers in the cafeteria who are not authorized to intervene in brawls, the source said.

"Kardin's parents will be here for every proceeding because they want justice for their son and they want bullying in the public schools to stop," said their lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.

Pierre Ulysse said his son has lost more than 20 pounds since he was injured and is severely depressed.

"The doctors give us some hope that he will see, but no guarantee," he said. "Taking my son's eye off is worse than bullying."

Source: NY Daily News