4 teens indicted in Brooklyn assault on NYPD officers

BENSONHURST (WABC) -- Four teenagers have been indicted in connection with an attack on two members of the New York City Police Department outside of a Bensonhurst residence last month, leaving one of the victims, an off-duty detective, badly beaten.

Joseph Nacmias, Jason Chalhon, Vito Morgera and Michael Peterson, all 17 and all of Mill Basin, are variously charged in a six-count indictment with second-degree assault, third-degree assault, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of marijuana.

"These teenagers allegedly attacked two off-duty police officers who identified themselves and simply asked the teens, in the early hours of a Sunday morning, to stop jumping on cars and making a lot of noise in a residential neighborhood," Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said. "We will now seek to hold them accountable for their conduct."

According to the investigation, just after midnight on February 8, NYPD Detective Daniel Alessandrino heard a rowdy group of teenagers creating a disturbance outside of his home.

Alessandrino, who was off-duty, went outside to check on the situation and saw a group of about 15 to 20 teenagers, mostly males, making a lot of noise and banging and jumping on cars.

Alessandrino, who was followed out of the house by his girlfriend, off-duty NYPD Officer Jaline Bernier, told the teens he didn't want any trouble and asked them to leave the area, to which Nacmias allegedly replied, "What are you going to do? Call a cop?"

Alessandrino then identified himself and Bernier as members of the NYPD, to which Nacmias allegedly replied, "I don't care. I'll kill a cop. A cop is going to die tonight."

Prosecutors say that Nacmias then lunged at Alessandrino and began punching him about the head and body.

"He told them, 'Leave, get out of here, I'm a cop,'" said a neighbor who didn't want to be identified. "You think they would have said well let's go...he's a big guy, but there were so many. I think he tripped or something, and they went at him."

When Alessandrino pushed Nacmias away, he allegedly attacked Bernier.

When Alessandrino tried to intervene, he was allegedly pushed to the ground and surrounded by the teens, who then kicked, punched and stomped on him, including kicking him in the head.

Alexis Alessandrino, who shares the home with her son and his girlfriend, couldn't believe her eyes when she came outside and saw the melee.

"One of the kids jumping up and down screaming, 'We hate cops, we kill cops,'" she said. "He was being kicked in the face and head."

The four were arrested shortly thereafter.

Alessandrino suffered swelling and lacerations about the eye, nose, jaw, head, arm and knee, broken teeth and bruising of his chest and shoulder. Bernier suffered swelling of the eye and pain in her face.

Morgera's father, Vito Morgera, Sr., tells Eyewitness News he told his son stay home that night, but he doesn't believe Morgera, Jr., had any part in the assault.

"He went for a party, I told him not to go," he said. "That's what happened, but he didn't beat up no cop."

The top count carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison.