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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Suit over hate mail

Eleven days after Lois and Mitchell Fuchs packed up their Smithtown home to escape a stream of racist mailings -- aimed at her because she's black and him because he's Jewish -- their attorney filed a federal lawsuit against the couple they say is responsible.

The civil suit filed in Central Islip names Karen and Salvatore Rizzo, who at one time lived less than a block from the Fuchses.

The suit, which seeks a jury trial, claims the Fuchses' civil rights were violated.

In July 2002, shortly after the Fuchses moved in, the Rizzos "repeatedly harassed the plaintiffs and other non-Caucasians who had the misfortune of living in the defendants' neighborhood by calling them racial epithets ... ," the lawsuit charges.

The Rizzos did not return calls for comment yesterday or answer the door at their home. A background check by Newsday showed that neither has a criminal record.

The Suffolk County Hate Crime Bureau investigated the mailings with the help of the FBI and the Postal Service. Det. Sgt. Robert Reecks said because no explicit threat occurred, a crime had not been committed.

Reecks said yesterday the Rizzos were interviewed during the investigation, but no charges were filed.

"I don't have a crime, so I can't have a suspect," Reecks said.

The Fuchses' attorney Robert Kronenberg said he believes they have a strong civil case against the Rizzos.

The lawsuit seeks $20 million in damages and asks that the Rizzos be forbidden by the court from engaging in future discriminatory conduct.

The hate mail began arriving in the Fuchses' mailbox in March, the suit said. Racial epithets were in place of the couple's last name, including a misspelled derogatory word for blacks and a slur for Jews.

"As a direct consequence of the defendants' conduct, plaintiffs have suffered extreme mental anguish, anxiety and distress, have been rendered physically and emotionally ill, and have been compelled to resign from their jobs, withdraw their children from school, and to sell their home and move away from the metropolitan New York area," read the suit.

Before day break on Aug. 11, the Fuchses left Smithtown for North Carolina.

Lois Fuchs gave up her teaching position at Hofstra University for a professor position at Guilford College in Greensboro, teaching criminal justice.

Mitchell Fuchs, once an accountant, said he is now out of work. Both are in a doctorate program at Dowling College in Oakdale, and said they will have to commute between New York and North Carolina until they graduate in May 2007.

The "defendants' conduct was to deprive, and did deprive, plaintiffs of the same rights as enjoyed by white citizens to purchase and hold real property solely on the basis of plaintiff's race ... ," says the suit.

Lois Fuchs said since the move, her seven children are happier.

"Now we're telling them, we've moved here for a better life," she said. "And it's true."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lifuchs0824,0,7648388.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

Comments:
Now *that* (look above) was a weird comment!

 

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