Two Hasidic Jewish men who admitted to brutally beating up and blinding a gay, black man in New York City have been spared jail.

Instead they were sentenced to 150 hours community sentence and only had to pay $1,400 to the victim in compensation.

Fashion student Taj Patterson has been left permanently blind in his right eye after being set upon by a group of Hasidic men as he walked down the street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in December 2013.

Taj Patterson

Pinchas Braver 22 and Abraham Winkler who were part of an ultra-orthodox Jewish patrol group were charged with gang hate crime.

Two others in the gang had their cases dropped completely. Another member, Mayer Herkovic is yet to go on trial.

But after pleading guilty to unlawful imprisonment they avoided jail and will instead do three years probation, paying just $1,400 in restitution and completing 150 hours community service.

But the men told the court last week that they only wanted to work on behalf of a Jewish charity. They said they wanted to do the community service at Chai Lifeline, a group that works with Jewish children with life-threatening illness.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun delayed sentencing Braver and Winkler and allowed the men to have more time to find a placement that they wanted – but they still haven’t.

They were also given more time to pay compensation, which, at the time of writing, they still haven’t.

Danny Chun was the same judge who sentenced Asian ex-cop Peter Liang to community service for killing an unarmed black teen on a stairwell in NYC. Liang was also required to donate money to the ex-police officers retirement fund as part of his “punishment “.

Patterson is now filing a suit against the city and NYPD alleging that the shomrim have been given preferential treatment for years.

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