Yet To Be Resolved

By Scott De Smit, *Mosque case adjourned again* - The Daily News - NY, USA; Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Carlton: Charges against five teenagers accused of harassing a Muslim congregation in August have yet to be resolved after another adjournment was granted Monday night in Town Court.

District Attorney Joseph Cardone said four of the five teens accused of harassing the congregation of World Sufi Foundation on Aug. 30 appeared in court. The fifth, Dylan Phillips, 19, and his attorney, Thomas Calandra, were unable to appear, Cardone said.

The case against the other four will be adjourned for a month. “Two and possibly three are considering a plea deal,” Cardone said.

The attorney for one of the teens argued Monday that her client’s case should be heard as a youthful offender case, which the judge granted. Motions were argued in the judge’s chamber instead of in open court. All may be eligible for such status, Cardone said.

For now, the five, Phillips, Mark Vendetti, 17, Jeff Donahue, 18, Anthony Ogden, 18, and Tim Weade, 18, are still charged with disrupting a church service and first-degree harassment, misdemeanors.

Vendetti also is charged with a felony for allegedly firing a shotgun at the mosque three nights earlier. Cardone has not presented his charges to a grand jury and instead is attempting to work out a plea.

Phillips is charged with two additional counts of third-degree assault for allegedly driving into a member of the mosque.

The five are accused of driving two cars outside the mosque the night of Aug. 30 and yelling obscenities and beeping a car alarm while members were inside praying.

[Picture: The Writing on the Water: Chronicles of a Seeker on the Islamic Sufi Path by Muhyiddin Shakoor. Dr. Shakoor, 66, a psychotherapist and retired professor at the State University at Brockport is one of the founders of the mosque, which is known as the World Sufi Foundation.]