A 71-year-old Barrington man accused of making racial slurs and assaulting his neighbor faces additional penalties under the state’s hate crime sentencing statute.
Richard E. Gordon is charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct after a confrontation on Aug. 3 with his neighbor, Bahram Pahlavi, over a property marker placed by a surveyor hired by Pahlavi. In a Facebook video posted by Pahlavi’s wife, Iman Ali Pahlavi, Gordon is heard cursing and using a racial slur.
(Warning: The video contains vulgar language and a racial slur.)
Pahlavi said in the Facebook post that since moving to Rumstick Drive three years ago, she and her husband have experienced repeated “microaggressions,” such as neighbors parking in their driveway and becoming “irate when we politely ask them to stop.” When her husband went outside last Friday morning to replace a property marker which had been removed, she wrote, “one of my neighbors jumped my husband calling him the N word.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Tuesday that Gordon’s actions were motivated by hatred toward Pahlavi’s racial identity, meaning that Gordon could face a harsher sentence. Rhode Island doesn’t have a hate crimes law, but under the sentencing statute the attorney general’s office can notify the judge that they plan to seek a more severe punishment. The penalty for a misdemeanor conviction under the state’s Hate Crimes Sentencing Act is up to one year in prison, with a minimum of 30 days imprisonment.
Gordon, who police arrested on Friday, has pleaded not guilty in District Court. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Sept. 11.
Gordon is a licensed dentist who specializes in oral surgery, according to state Health Department records. However, it isn’t clear whether he continues to practice. His license to administer anesthesia has expired.
Gordon could not be reached for comment.
On Tuesday afternoon, about two-dozen people including members of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island,the media and police gathered outside Gordon’s Rumstick Drive home.
“This should never ever happen where people come to America for the apple pie and they get first class white supremacy,’’ said Mark Fisher, senior director of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island.
Katherine Quinn, of Barrington, who said she is a friend of the Pahlavis, described the couple as Middle Eastern. “You know, people keep on saying I hope this doesn’t drive them out,’’ Quinn said. The answer, she said, is “very clearly a resounding statement from the family and from the people in this community who value them, they’re not going anywhere.”
–Lynn Arditi, Health Reporter for The Public’s Radio, can be reached at larditi@thepublicsradio.org
