Gay man awarded $4.5 million after alleged attack by religious patrol, officials say

Almost 10 years ago, Taj Patterson was walking in Brooklyn when he said men from a religious volunteer group chased him down and attacked him, court documents show.

“I was a 22-year-old kid going out for a friend’s birthday,” Patterson, who was a student in New York at the time, told McClatchy News in a phone interview. “I didn’t think my life would change so drastically so quickly.”

After years of litigation, the case reached its conclusion on Sept. 19.

On Dec. 1, 2013, men from the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, a volunteer group of Orthodox Jews, shouted homophobic slurs and beat Patterson, a Black, gay man, so severely that the attack left him blind in one eye, he said in court documents.

Earlier in the night, safety patrol received a call that a Black person was vandalizing cars in Williamsburg, Patterson said.

“So I guess they took it upon themselves to apprehend the first Black person they saw,” he said.

Neither the Williamsburg Safety Patrol nor the New York City Police Department immediately responded to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Patterson was taken to the hospital with injuries, he said. While he was being treated, police closed their investigation into the incident and marked it as “Final, No Arrests,” according to court documents.

After Patterson and his mother generated press coverage about what happened, they were contacted by the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit.

Their investigation led to five people’s arrests. Two people had their cases dismissed; two pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and one was convicted of gang assault and unlawful imprisonment, according to court documents. However, his conviction was overturned in 2018, according to court documents.

In a lawsuit brought against the city, Patterson said police had “inappropriate ties” to the patrol, who are funded, at least in part, by the city. He also said they botched his initial investigation.

On Sept. 19, however, Patterson was awarded “$4.5 million of which $3 million is for past pain and suffering and $1.5 million is for future,” marking the end of a yearslong legal saga, according to court documents.

In a brief, virtual appearance, Judge Miriam Sunshine addressed Patterson and his attorney.

Reading from a medical report, Sunshine said, “it’s unlikely to be able to read or have good vision ever again.”

“There is no numerical value you can place on someone’s eyesight or their limbs or their body in general,” Patterson said. “I was violated in a very major way…But with that said, I’m glad that it’s all over after almost a decade.”

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