[KS] Victim in SUNY-Binghamton Attack Holds First Press

icas icas at dvol.com
Fri Jun 9 08:27:25 EDT 2000


          Student talks about life after the February attack that left
him with a skull fracture,
          concussion and internal hemorrhaging.
          by Evelyn Ch'ien
          May 31, 2000

          At the City College Center in New York City, the 19-year-old
SUNY-Binghamton
          student who suffered a skull fracture, concussion and internal
hemorrhaging in an
          alleged hate crime held his first press conference since his
attack on February 27.
          John E. Lee, a Korean American freshman at the school, has
been taking
          anti-seizure medication since the attack, and looked wan and
tired as he delivered
          a speech of only a few minutes.

          "I was recently attacked for the color of my skin," Lee began.
"If my friends had
          not been there, the scariest question was, 'Would I die?' I am
not sure what the
          answer would be, but what I do know is that if I had been
white, this never would
          have happened to me."
          Lee also fielded questions from reporters about his present
condition, saying he
          still felt very nervous walking around campus. "Yes, sometimes
I replay the
          incident and wonder whether it will happen again."

          Another reporter asked Lee if he believed that Chad Scott,
Nicholas Richetti and
          Christopher Taylor--the three white Binghamton students
charged with assaulting
          Lee and three other Korean-Americans in the incident--were
receiving special
          treatment because they were athletes, and Lee answered in the
affirmative. Lee
          also stated that no apologies had been issued from the
university or from those
          involved in the incident.

          Lee's brother Luiz, who drove up from Fairfax, Virginia to
attend the press
          conference, voiced other concerns about the university's
neglect and slow response
          to the situation. "I want to emphasize that my brother had to
call the
          administration first. He did meet with the Dean, but on his
own initiative," said Luiz
          Lee.

          Luiz Lee also remembered the incident with distress: "My
brother looked bad.
          There was a lot of blood on his head. The first thing they
told me was, 'whatever
          you told him, he won't remember it five minutes later.'"

          John Lee had little to say about the early morning incident in
February, in part
          because of legal technicalities and in part because his memory
is impaired. He
          suffered from amnesia shortly after sustaining head injuries
and, in a private
          interview, looked to Sin Yen Ling, a legal fellow with the
Asian American Legal
          Defense and Education Fund, to answer some of the questions
asked of him.
          Ling said that the Lees were really disappointed that one of
the alleged assailants,
          Chad Scott, was indicted on a misdemeanor charge rather than
on a felony charge.
          The other two are facing charges of second degree gang assault
and, if convicted,
          face a minimum of three years in prison and a maximum of
fifteen years,
          according to Ling. Richetti is due to plead his case before a
Broome County court
          on June 2nd.

          "We can't do anything about the criminal determinations now,
but we can hope that
          the Department of Justice begins federal investigations," said
Ling. "We'll find
          some reprieve and hopefully some satisfaction from that."

          Lee added that he is considering transferring to another
university, but has not yet
          made a final decision. For now, he said "I have to deal with
the media, the [legal]
          case--it's time consuming...The event definitely changed my
life."



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