NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing an upstate ice cream shop owner alleging he falsely reported that Black Lives Matter protesters were threatening to shoot him by using the new law brought about by the “Central Park Karen.”
The attorney general’s office said Elmendorf “used their [protestors] race and color as reasoning for the call” violating their civil rights as well as "their ability to practice their civil rights to peacefully protest when he threatened to use physical force and harassed protestors with racial slurs," in a statement announcing the suit on Wednesday.
The suit seeks to make Elmendorf pay up to a $500 penalty for each time he "attempted to violate a protestor's right to peacefully protest" and prohibit him from imposing future threats to "intimidate, coerce, or harass any persons or group of people because of their race, from having or brandishing a deadly weapon within 1,000 feet of any peaceful protest, from communicating with any of the victims from the incident, and from creating false reports with the police based on a person’s skin color," the announcement said.
Protester converged near David Elmendorf's Schenectady ice cream shop Bumpy’s Polar Freeze in June 2020 after racist text messages allegedly sent by him circulated on social media, according to the Schenectady County Supreme Court lawsuit filed by James on Wednesday.
According to the court papers, The texts included racial slurs and one in which Elmendorf said, “I don’t hire black people.”
Court documents allege that during one of the protests on June 30, the group “stood peacefully on the porch of a private house near Bumpy’s” while Elmendorf yelled out slurs, including the n-word and “monkeys,” for 15 minutes.
Elmendorf also threatened the demonstrators with a baton and said “if you come over here I’m going to shoot you.”
Additionally, said “I’ll kill all you f—-ing n—-rs,” and that he’d go into the ice cream parlor causing protesters to flee, the court filing continues.
Then Elmendorf called 911, claiming that there were “20 armed protesters who were threatening to shoot him,” adding that they were “‘savages’ hanging out in ‘Section 8 housing,'” the court documents allege.
Elmendorf later wielded a .22-caliber air rifle pellet gun, when 50 protesters showed up threatening them saying “I’ll run you n—-rs over with my truck,” the court filing charges.
Police stopped Elmendorf as he drove away, and found the pellet gun, a can of ammunition and a rifle scope, the court papers allege.
Elmendorf pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and the case is still pending, according to court records.
“Those who make racist and violent threats will be held accountable by my office with the full weight of the law,” James said in a statement. “The charges against David Elmendorf should serve as a warning that hate crimes will not be tolerated on my watch and we will not allow any individual to use the color of someone’s skin as a weapon.”
The AG said her office can now sue anyone who makes false, race-based police reports to local officials after the state legislature last June made a law that would make it a hate crime when 911 callers make a false accusation based on race, gender or religion.
The law was prompted by the case of Amy Cooper, dubbed "Central Park Karen" who was walking her dog in Central Park on May 25 when she called police and falsely claimed that bird watcher Christian Cooper, a Black man, threatened her and her dog.
Elmendorf’s criminal defense attorney James Mermigis claimed that Elmendorf was being attacked by protesters and one of his friends was beaten up by them, and alledges his client was “defending himself," according to a report from told The New York Post.