by BRIAN HARMON
Testimony in the two-jury trial of three brothers accused of savagely beating a veteran city firefighter returning from a Sept. 11 memorial may start this week.
Attorneys will continue picking a jury Monday for the case against Christopher Robinson, 26, who faces the most serious charges and the most time in prison for allegedly kicking and stomping Richard Berkhout so severely that the victim landed in the hospital in critical condition.
The jury for Robinson's 29-year-old twin brothers, Darian Taylor of Center Moriches and Darrell Taylor of Mastic, was selected over the past two weeks. Once selection of the second jury is finished, possibly by the end of the week, the two panels will hear the case simultaneously before state Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle in Riverhead County Court.
Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said he was particularly disgusted with the randomness of the brothers' alleged September 2006 attack on Berkhout, 47, a member of New York City's Bravest for 13 years.
Berkhout was walking with his wife near his home on Lakeview Ave. in Mastic Beach when he yelled at the three brothers to slow down as they sped in a Chevrolet Lumina down a residential street about 9:15 p.m., Spota said. The car stopped and the three men allegedly jumped out and immediately started assaulting the firefighter.
"When you consider the randomness and the degree of violence - a couple walking down a residential street, hand in hand, on a peaceful evening - this was a crime that could have happened anywhere in Suffolk County," said Spota, who has pledged not to plea bargain in the case.
It was the quick-thinking of Berkhout's wife that led to the fast arrests of the defendants.
During her husband's beating, Margaret Berkhout tried to remove the keys from the defendants' car. One of the men thwarted her efforts, but in the process, the ignition key to the Lumina was bent, preventing the men from starting the vehicle.
Spota found it "extremely disturbing" that Robinson had been released from prison in upstate New York just 12 hours earlier.
Robinson was on parole after spending four years behind bars for the brutal beating of a 16-year-old in Patchogue in 2002. During that attack, the victim's facial bones were shattered, requiring reconstructive surgery.
Robinson, charged with first-degree gang assault, first-degree assault and third-degree assault, faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted. Spota said he intends to seek an additional three years behind bars for Robinson because the defendant was on parole at the time of the beating.
The Taylor twins each face 25 years in prison if they are found guilty of first-degree gang assault and third-degree assault.
Authorities note that Berkhout faces the possibility of life-long seizures due to the severity of the fractured skull he suffered. At the time of the beating, Berkhout, who worked at Engine 298 in Jamaica, also suffered bleeding from the brain, loss of hearing in one ear and facial paralysis.
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