BALTIMORE — Two brothers accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood are set to go on trial today in a case with similarities to the Trayvon Martin shooting.
The brothers, who are white and Jewish, have claimed self-defense, saying the 15-year-old was holding a nail-studded board. Local activists hope the Martin case will draw more attention to what they believe was racial profiling by neighborhood watch vigilantes.
Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim are accused of beating the teen, who suffered a cut to his head and a broken wrist in November 2010.
The brothers pulled up next to the teen in a vehicle, then got out and “surrounded him,” according to charging documents.
One of them threw the teen to the ground and the driver hit him in the head with a handheld radio and patted him down, the documents say.
The brothers are charged with assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon (the radio). The brothers face up to 13 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.