Man convicted for attack at East Meadow bar

A Lynbrook man was convicted of slashing a bouncer’s head, face and neck during an early-morning altercation at an East Meadow bar in February 2010. 

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced on Feb. 4 that Thomas King, 21, faces up to seven years in prison after a jury took about two days to convict him of Assault in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fifth Degree. He will be sentenced on June 1, prosecutors said. 

At about 1:50 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2010, King got into a verbal altercation with security personnel at RC Dugans, located at 2314 Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, after he was denied entry because he was underage, Rice said. King was 20 years old at the time of the incident. 

After being followed out into the parking lot by security, prosecutors said King attacked one of the bouncers, slashing him three times with a sharp object. The victim suffered severe lacerations to the top of his head, right side of his face and left side of his neck, causing permanent scarring, prosecutors said. 

Nassau County police arrested King on March 9, 2010. A jury rejected the defense’s claims that King was acting in self-defense. 

“This brutally violent attack has left the victim permanently scarred, and for that this defendant will face years in a prison cell,” Rice said. “I am glad that the jury was able to see through the defense’s false claims and hold him accountable for this vicious crime.”

Assistant District Attorney Lauren Nickerson of the County Court Trial Bureau is prosecuting the case for the DA’s Office. King is represented by Michael DerGarabedian, Esq. 

The jury found King not guilty of Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and Assault in the First Degree. DerGarabedian told the Herald that King and his family are relieved that he was acquitted of the more serious charges, and expressed confidence that the assault felony will be reversed during the appeals process.   

“The whole King family is happy about the acquittal of very serious charges,” Der-
Garabedian said. “The lower felony will probably be overturned on an appeal.”

- Clarissa Hamlin and Mike Caputo