New charges for 5 accused of harassing NY mosque

USANEWSNY DESK: Five teenagers accused of disrupting a religious service at a small-town mosque were hit with extra misdemeanor charges Monday, but a prosecutor said he was holding off classifying their acts as a hate crime.
Two 17-year-old boys and three 18-year-olds yelled obscenities and honked car horns outside a mosque in the Lake Ontario town of Carlton, in western New York state, during two nights of drive-by harassment in late August, authorities said. One teen was accused of firing a shotgun.
The teens, from nearby Holley, initially were charged with disrupting a religious service. They were charged in Carlton Town Court on Monday night with first-degree harassment, another misdemeanor.
In addition, 18-year-old Dylan Phillips, who was accused of sideswiping a worshipper with his vehicle, was charged with third-degree assault, leaving the scene of a personal injury incident and various traffic violations. Phillips pleaded not guilty. Three other teens had their cases adjourned until they could retain lawyers and were ordered to stay away from the mosque.
The fifth teen, 17-year-old Mark Vendetti, was charged Aug. 31 with felony criminal possession of a weapon.
He was accused of twice firing a shotgun into the ground during a confrontation outside the mosque the night before. He told police he fired the gun because he was afraid mosque members might go after him, prosecutors said. AP, Carlton.