Charges reduced in Roxen Road case

A Nassau County judge has dismissed the top charges of second-degree gang assault against the defendants in a case arising from an incident on Roxen Road in June 2012.

Following evidentiary hearings last week, the top count against each defendant was dropped. In addition, charges of second-degree assault were reduced to second-degree attempted assault, which carries a maximum sentence of four years. The charges of third-degree assault, also filed against all five teens, remain unchanged.

Matthew DiPerna and William Moore were arrested three days after the incident last June 18, and Kevin Coyle was taken into custody a month later, after a joint investigation by village and Nassau County police. Officers arrested the final two defendants, William Nelson and Nolan Kelly, on Dec. 27.

“They’re going for pre-trial examinations right now,” said Rockville Centre Police Commissioner Charles Gennario, who added that the charges might change as the evidence is examined. “Evidentiary hearings. So my officers are testifying.”

According to police reports, a group of local teenagers shouted obscenities at a resident as she walked her dog down Nottingham Road last June. The woman grew fearful, police said, and ran home to tell her husband about the incident. The two then drove around the neighborhood looking for the teens in order to demand an apology from them, before finding the group on Roxen Road.

When the man confronted the group, they attacked and injured him, police said, adding that a second man, who lives nearby, was also attacked after attempting to help his neighbor, and the woman was thrown to the ground during the altercation.

Neither the neighbor nor the woman required medical attention, but the woman’s husband was taken by police to Mercy Medical Center, where he was treated for a broken rib, multiple contusions, a cut on his face and an injury to his jaw.

The defendants were scheduled to return to the Nassau County First District Court on Thursday.