Opinion ID: 8414983
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Attack

Text: The story of this case began when, on October 7, 2006, Dufort and four Mends— Christopher Baez, Sebastian Yoon, Jeffrey Shih, and John Bae-—went to the Pastel Karaoke bar in Queens, New York. Dufort, who was fifteen years old at the time, was wearing a maroon, zip-up, hooded sweatshirt with a white “American Eagle” logo on it. Earlier in the evening, Dufort and his four companions had gone to a nearby construction site to gather pieces of pipe in order to defend themselves “just in case” an altercation occurred. Surveillance video shows Dufort entering Pastel Karaoke shortly after midnight with a one-and-a-half-foot pipe concealed in his sweatshirt. When they arrived at the club, the five friends met up with a larger group of about twenty students from Bayside High School, some of whom were affiliated with a local gang known as the “Ghost Shadows.” This group spent most of the night in some of the club’s private káraoke rooms. At approximately 3:00 AM on the morning of October 8, a separate group of teenagers—Jung Hwa Lee, Hwa Young Park, Mink-ki Shin, and In Hee Yoo—arrived at Pastel Karaoke. At 3:50 AM, as this group attempted to leave, Lee and Shin were attacked in the central area of the bar. During the altercation, Sebastian Yoon entered a private room occupied by Dufort and his friends and informed them that a fight had broken out. Some of Dufort’s friends ran out to participate in the fight. Dufort also left the private room when the fight began, and surveillance footage shows him walking down a corridor holding his length of pipe. There is no surveillance footage, however, of the attack itself. Dufort claims that when he entered the bar area he witnessed a group of ten to twenty men assaulting the victims, and that he stepped over either Lee or Shin, who was lying on the ground, in order to leave the bar. Dufort maintains that he never participated in the fight, and that he never used physical force against either victim. Surveillance footage shows Dufort leaving the bar with a group of other young men, some of whom were holding bats. One other young man in a red, button-down shirt, who is holding a bat, is seen leaving the building moments after Dufort.