The Clark County District Attorney’s office has reversed course and filed hate crime charges against a man accused of attacking a 75-year-old man in Las Vegas.
DA Steven Wolfson today announced that Christian Lentz will face charges of residential burglary and elder abuse perpetrated as a hate crime.
Amadeo Quindara says Lentz lives just two doors down from him and interrupted a conversation he was having with a friend in Tagalog. Quindara says Lentz demanded that he speak English and used several racial slurs. He left but Quindara says he returned and entered his garage the next day to beat him.
Police arrested Lentz but released him after filing residential burglary charges against him.
The hate crime enhancement means Lentz could face a maximum penalty of ten years in jail for robbery as a hate crime and a maximum of five years for elder abuse as a hate crime.
“We will not tolerate such horrible acts of hatred and violence in our community,” said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a statement. “These actions are unacceptable and will have consequences.”
Just Wednesday, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations of Nevada and the state’s largest healthcare and public service union, SEIU Local 1107, issued statements urging the county to pursue hate crime charges in this case.
Jacque De Joya, president of the National Federal of Filipino American Associations of Nevada spoke to AsAmNews about today’s news.
“We all think it’s a great decision,” she said. He (DA Wolfson) was pressured by officials, the community. Our Asian community was very hurt that the perpetrator was released so suddenly and easily. Seeing this gentleman being assaulted really brought it close to our community.”
She said Quindara has remained fearful of his life and says the victim told her that Lentz has returned to his home and just stood and stared at him.
This is a developing story. We’ll have more as the information becomes available.
(Correction: An earlier version of the story had a different timeline of events. We apologize for the error).
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