Yitzhak Shuchat, 28, is free on $300,000 bail and living with an uncle in Crown Heights, said his lawyer, Paul Batista.
“Yitzy is a good kid,” Batista said. “He obviously is going to stay here until this matter gets resolved.”
Shuchat was picked up by US marshals in Israel last month after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. He was flown back to New York, and pleaded not guilty July 18 in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
Shuchat was patrolling Crown Heights on April 4, 2008, as a member of Shmira, a civilian patrol, when he and another Shmira member answered a radio report about black men throwing rocks at people on President Street.
When the pair got to the scene, they had words with several youths, including Andrew Charles, then 20 years old, the son of a police officer.
Shuchat’s story is that he and Charles only exchanged words, his lawyer said.
But Charles ended up in an emergency room.
Asked about the incident in a recent TV interview, Charles said: “They attacked us, and that’s about it.”
Authorities allege that Shuchat beat Charles with a stick. Then-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes gave an interview to New York Jewish Week in which he likened Shmira to criminal gangs.
“You can’t have a group, whether it’s the Bloods, Crips or Shmira, acting like vigilantes,” Hynes said.
Shuchat, realizing he was wanted by the cops, fled to Canada and then to Israel. Until his extradition, he lived in Lod, a city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and started a family.
While he was in Israel, a Brooklyn grand jury indicted him on charges that included assault with a weapon as a hate crime. Batista said his client could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Batista hopes to resolve the case without a trial.
“It’s my hope something can be worked out. But I don’t know what that would be,” he said.
Among Shuchat’s supporters in the Jewish community is Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who says authorities “took a minor incident and made it into a very serious situation.”
“This could have been resolved a long time ago,” Hikind said. “It makes absolutely no sense.”
Also aiding Shuchat was Alan Dershowitz, the famed criminal-defense lawyer, who worked on the extradition case as it made its way through Israeli courts.
Shuchat’s supporters see the case as a path to his vindication. “I’m glad he’s back so things can be cleared up,” Hikind said.
A spokesperson for the current DA, Kenneth Thompson, declined to comment.