The rich inheritor to a raisin empire who yelled vile antisemitic slurs at his Rabbi neighbor from the balcony of his $5.3 million mansion has been charged with three felony hate crimes.
Bruce Lion, the 64-year-old scion tied to the dried fruit dynasty, flooded his cell repeatedly this week to keep away from standing in entrance of a decide, the California Put up can reveal.
He was nonetheless slapped with one depend of violation of civil rights and two counts of felony threats after he was allegedly recorded by Rabbi Zushe Cunin making vicious threats.
Lion was scheduled to look earlier than a decide Thursday afternoon. He made it to the courthouse however wasn’t allowed upstairs to the courtroom on account of his conduct.
He was allegedly strapped to a security chair and had flooded his cell by flushing the bathroom non cease. His lawyer informed the courtroom Lion had psychological well being points and entered a not responsible plea on his behalf.
The decide then ordered an analysis and examination and bond was set at $225,000. If convicted as charged, he faces as much as 9 years and 4 months in state jail.
The Put up final week obtained a number of movies of Lion harassing neighbor Cunin from the balcony of his mansion, screaming grievances he had with the Jewish religion or with the spiritual chief himself.
In a single vile trade, he screamed: “I ain’t going nowhere Jew boy, lose some f—ing weight. Go f—ing work. Do one thing for a change.
“Your faux f—ing gospel don’t imply s—t. You’re f—ing executed. You kill Jesus, you’re going to f—ing hell. Do you perceive?” Lion additionally threatened to “pull” the rabbi’s nostril.
Rabbi Cunin stated: “Whereas the authorized course of should now take its course, we hope these prices present a measure of reassurance to our neighborhood, which has endured months of worry, intimidation, monetary loss, and trauma.”
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He added, “Our focus stays on therapeutic, strengthening our neighborhood, and guaranteeing that each household can stay, worship, and lift their youngsters in peace and security.”
When Lion was arrested on June 13, he was seen spewing extra anti-Semitic hate in the direction of a digicam man capturing the arrest.
He could be heard yelling: “Hey f—ok you Jews, f—ok you Jews, you’re going to hell,” amongst different unhinged statements.
The scion was additionally seen resisting whereas being positioned right into a police cruiser.“Hear motherf—er, I’ll f—ng harm you. Hey, name my lawyer, name my f—ng lawyer,” hes’ heard saying because the door closes.
A buddy of the Lion household, figuring out herself solely as Megan, says that Lion has been troubled for a while.
“Bruce has some psychological points and so they should be addressed instantly ” she informed The Put up, including: “However proper now my ideas are with Rabbi Cunin, we have to do no matter it takes to verify he doesn’t really feel threatened in his own residence.”
Megan tried to see Lion at present, however when he wasn’t let into to the courtroom she was solely capable of give the bailiff a message of help for the inheritor.
District lawyer Nathan Hochman stated: “Hate has no place in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County is experiencing an alarming improve in hate crimes, with record-high antisemitic offenses, we’ll prosecute any crime motivated by prejudice in opposition to them.”
Lion is scheduled to be in courtroom once more on July 6 after his psychological well being analysis.
