Indictment issued in vicious beating of restaurant owner

By Pauline Liu

The man accused of beating an Albany sushi restaurant owner into a coma pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday after being indicted for multiple counts of robbery and assault by a grand jury.

With the indictment, the case against 42 year-old Lucas Healey moves closer to trial. The Albany man is accused of attempting to dine-and-dash at the Shogun restaurant on Madison Avenue on May 29th after running up a bill of over $425 in food and alcohol.

Restaurant staff followed Healey out the door in an effort to stop him from leaving until police arrived. One of them was the 49 year-old restaurant co-owner Su Wen.The outdoor violence was captured on security video. It showed Healey punching Su Wen in the head causing him to fall backwards and hit the back of his head against the sidewalk.

Police arrested Healey at the scene of the alleged crimes without incident.

The traumatic head injury left Su Wen, a father of two, in a coma for nearly two weeks at Albany Medical Center. According to his family and colleagues, he was transferred to NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation facility in New York City a couple of weeks ago. He is now struggling to relearn how to walk and talk.

“The brain damage has affected all his limbs,” wrote his 18 year-old daughter, Nicole, in a message on GoFundMe. “When he talks, he’s barely audible and the nurses needed to be really close to his mouth to hear him.” She went on to explain that doctors are unable to estimate how long he will remain in rehab.

The GoFundMe was started by Chris Pratt, who co-owns the Lark Street Tavern next door to Su Wen’s restaurant. Pratt explained the goal is to help Su Wen’s family offset his medical expenses, especially since Su’s wife quit her job in order to stay by his bedside.

So far, the campaign has raised more than $60,000 out of a goal of $75,000. Among the over 850 donors are ordinary people who felt moved to donate $1,000 or more.

There was a New Jersey based nonprofit called 1 Thing Against Racism, which has recently made several donations totaling over $12,000. The three-year-old organization was founded by Li Ma in response to hate crimes against Asian Americans.

“We found that many of those victims need help,” said Ma, a manager for Google. He explained that donations from colleagues, fellow “Googlers,” as well as some matching funds from Google have raised $54,000 in donations over the past year and a half to help 16 victims, including Su Wen. 1 Thing has also launched a hate crime tracker on its website, 1Thing.org. Ma believes it will give people a better understanding of the prevalence anti-Asian hate crimes.

The charges against Healey was originally included first degree robbery as a hate crime because he allegedly shouted racial slurs while trying to flee the restaurant. Prosecutors did not explain why the indictment no longer designated the robbery as a hate crime. They did make it clear that if convicted Healey will not be getting out of jail anytime soon.

“If convicted on all counts, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in state prison,” according to Darrell Camp, public information officer for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. Healey is being held at the Albany County Correctional Facility.

(Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the suspect entered his plea Tuesday. It was Wednesday.)