Teen's assault arrest reinstated
Saturday, June 20, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A state appeals court has reinstated the assault and robbery charges against a teenager who the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office wants charged as an adult.

Aswad Williams, now 18 years old, was re-arrested after the May 15 appeals court ruling, and faces indictment when the Hudson County grand jury reconvenes.

"I was shocked by the initial ruling and am very happy the appeal went through as it did," Hudson County Assistnat Prosecutor Stephanie McClure said. "It is an egregious situation in which a guy goes to intercede in a violent crime with a girl he knows from church and he gets pummeled."

The juvenile victim and two adult witnesses said the girl was in front of a church at Montgomery and Brunswick streets on March 17, 2008 when she was attacked by several girls who also went through her purse.

When a man in his 50s intervened, a boy at the scene - later identified by two witnesses as Williams, then 17 - became angry and slammed the man to the ground, witnesses said. The man was knocked unconscious and suffered numerous injuries, reports said.

Based on a description given by witnesses, Williams was captured within a half hour of the incident.

Williams had turned 18 by the time of a hearing before Judge Camille Kenny, then in family court, and prosecutors attempted to charge him as an adult. Kenny ruled that prosecutors failed to show probable cause and she refused to waive the matter to criminal court. She then threw out the juvenile charges against Williams as well.

The appeals court ruled May 15 that "Contrary to the judge's conclusions, it is clear that the evidence gives rise to a 'well-grounded suspicion or belief' that an offense occurred and that the juvenile '(was) party to it.'"

Kenny declined to comment on the appeals court ruling.