A third motorcycle gang member involved in the vicious beating of an SUV driver was arraigned on Sunday. Reginald Chance, 37, was charged with several felonies, including gang assault in the first degree. Chance is the biker who is accused of smashing out a window on the SUV so the other bikers could get to the driver.
Chance, a career criminal who has been arrested 21 times in the past, will remain in jail unless his family can come up with the $100,000 bond the judge set for him. The biker certainly didn’t seem too bothered by the charges he faces, as he took the opportunity to flip off reporters in court.
Gregory Watts, Chance’s lawyer, issued a statement on his client’s part in the SUV gang assault and says that Chance was knocked off his motorcycle by the SUV driver, Alexian Lien, and simply went too far trying to identify the driver.
“The law does permit someone who is a victim of an accident to at least attempt to get the identification of the motorist,” Watts said. “My client obviously overreacted in that manner, but he is not this thug assaulting someone who’s harmless, contrary to the public opinion that’s being put out there.”
Watts further says that Chance didn’t participate in the assault. “My client obviously overreacted in smashing the window, but beyond that he was not a participant in any assault on the victim,” Watts said. Watts may think that all Chance did was “overreact,” but the district attorney in the case says that Chance’s role in the beating was pivotal.
By smashing the window, Chance’s actions “set into motion a chain of events that resulted in the driver being dragged out of his vehicle and beaten” by others, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsZ0RrempoI
The SUV gang assault occurred on September 29 when a group of bikers surrounded Lien and his family, forcing them to stop. The bikers then proceeded to bust out a window in Lien’s Range Rover and beat him in front of his wife and toddler. Police are still investigating the crime and are looking into claims that two off-duty police officers stood by and did nothing to intervene during the assault.