Court Upholds Howard Beach Verdicts

NEW YORK — A state appeals court Monday unanimously upheld the verdicts and sentences for three white youths convicted in the 1986 Howard Beach attack that left a black man dead and inflamed racial tensions in New York City.

The five-judge panel noted that the evidence was sufficient to establish that Scott Kern, Jason Ladone and Jon Lester “relentlessly” chased Michael Griffith onto a busy highway where he was struck by a car and killed.

The action “created a grave risk of death to Griffith which the defendants consciously disregarded,” the judges of the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court ruled.

It also said that the prison terms originally imposed were “neither harsh nor excessive under the circumstances.”

In the Dec. 20, 1986, attack, a group of 12 white youths chased and beat three black men whose car had broken down in the predominantly white Howard Beach section of Queens.