Beating victims left with dim 'perception of justice'

In the early morning of Aug. 15, 2008, after a night clubbing in Old City, Levi Lee and Bryson Mills were about to hail a taxi home at 3rd and Market streets when they saw a group of seven white men chasing a black man across the street.

They said they heard the black man being called a "n - - - - -."

Mills says he yelled to the white men to stop after one of them hit the black man. With that, the group of white guys crossed Market Street to attack Mills and Lee.

The two men, both African-American and college graduates, say they were then punched, beaten and called "n - - - - - -." Mills' right eye was swollen shut and Lee was knocked in the head with a wooden plank and punched and kicked.

A jury last month found Richard Lyons and James Cummings - two of the white men involved in the beating - guilty of aggravated assault, but acquitted them of ethnic intimidation.

Despite the testimony of Lee and Mills, Assistant District Attorney A.J. Nardozzi said yesterday that a witness who was across the street when the incident occurred testified that he hadn't heard racial slurs.

Common Pleas Judge Denis Cohen yesterday sentenced Lyons, 27, of Belgrade Street near Auburn in Port Richmond, to 11 1/2 to 23 months in county prison, followed by 10 years' probation.

At a hearing that followed, Cohen initially sentenced Cummings, 28, of Almond Street near Cambria, Port Richmond, to three to six years in state prison. Cummings had a prior aggravated-assault case; Lyons had a prior simple-assault case.

Public defender Mia Roberts, Cummings' attorney, objected to the disparity and said Lyons' attorney, Arnold Silverstein, "paraded political figures to bully the court."

She noted that at Lyons' hearing, he had about 45 supporters in the courtroom, including Joseph Dougherty, business manager of Ironworkers Local Union 401 in Philadelphia.

"That is a travesty!" Roberts said of the disparity. "This is not what justice is about."

Lyons also had letters in his favor from state lawmakers.

After a private sidebar discussion, Cohen changed Cummings' sentence to two to four years in state prison, followed by six years' probation. He noted that Cummings' aggravated-assault case "happened long ago" when Cummings was 16 and not yet mature.

He also said he was "concerned about the perception of justice." Yesterday's outcomes angered Mills and Lee, now both 24.

"I'm more pissed off," Mills said after Cummings' hearing.

Lee added: "I think the judge missed the main factor. We did not do nothing wrong. We were just trying to go home from a long night in the city."