Whether assault was sparked by race remains unresolved

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A retired Rhode Island doctor charged with assaulting his neighbor while shouting racial epithets was convicted Wednesday, but whether the state’s hate crime law applies, as prosecutors allege, remained unresolved.

Richard Gordon, 71, of Barrington, was convicted of simple assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, in connection with the Aug. 3 altercation with Bahram Pahlavi over a property boundary dispute.

Gordon exited his house and assaulted Pahlavi after Pahlavi replaced a surveyor’s stake in Gordon’s front yard, prosecutors said. The victim was standing in the street, which divides the two properties, according to prosecutors.

The confrontation was caught on video and prompted Black Lives Matter protests in town.

District Court Judge Stephen Isherwood made a preliminary determination that the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the retired oral surgeon was driven by hatred or animus based on Pahlavi’s Iranian heritage, The Providence Journal reported.

“The judge did not believe that the doctor had selected the complaining party based on race or country of origin,” Gordon’s lawyer, Robert Flanders Jr. told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “This was a simple boundary dispute.”

At the request of Assistant Attorney General John Moreira, Isherwood postponed sentencing so the state can present additional evidence to try and prove their case for a hate crime. That hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Rhode Island does not have a free-standing hate crime law. A defendant must first be convicted of a criminal offense, and if it is found that the state’s hate crime statute was violated, it could lead to a more severe sentence.

Pahlavi and his wife declined comment outside of court.

Gordon maintains Pahlavi struck him with a hammer first, causing a forearm injury that required stitches, Flanders said.

But Barrington police determined Gordon was the “primary aggressor.”

Gordon is remorseful, Flanders said. “Obviously, he regrets that this happened,” he said.