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Motorcyclists Claim They Had No Part In Brutal SUV Driver Beatdown
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 15, 2013
Modified Nov 15, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 15, 2013
Modified Nov 15, 2013
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At the end of September, a group of motorcyclists were accused of brutally beating an SUV driver who collided with at least one biker. Altogether, 11 motorcyclists (including one undercover police officer) have been charged and indicted for the incident; all but one of them are facing gang assault charges and potentially lengthy prison sentences. Now two of the motorcyclists are speaking out, and both say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and had nothing to do with the beatdown.
"When they were attacking him, I was screaming for them to stop and leave them alone because that's not what I wanted to happen," 42-year-old Allen Edwards told NBC. "All I could do was scream. I couldn't get involved because there were so many of them. It happened so fast." Edwards, who has been charged with gang assault, rioting and coercion in the confrontation, was the biker seen banging on SUV driver Alexian Lien's window in the video of the incident (see below).
Lien told investigators that a motorcyclist smashed the window of his car with his helmet, then five or six other motorcyclists dragged him out of the car and attacked him, kicking him in the head as he tried to crawl to safety. Lien, who was beaten in full view of his wife and child, suffered two black eyes, multiple cuts that required stitches, and injuries to his back, hands, and right shoulder.
Edwards says when he saw Lien's wife and child, it stopped him from hurting Lien: "I felt, like, her being terrified, like that stopped me right there," he said. "I stopped yelling at him and I went back to my bike." Edwards' lawyer agrees: "My client may have been the only reason Mr. Lien's wife was spared," said John Carney. "He pleaded with the men to not hurt her."
Another motorcyclist, 33-year-old Clint Caldwell, also claims he never touched Lien. Caldwell, who has been charged with felony gang assault, assault, coercion and rioting, did admit that he too could be seen in the video in the blue shirt approaching the SUV just seconds before the assault began. "That's me, as they surround me and I feel their presence I walk away," Caldwell told ABC. "It's terrible to even watch, sometimes I even cringe when I look at it. Because it's like, how did it get that far, you know. He should have never been assaulted like that. He never should have been drug out of his car, in front of his family and beaten like that. That, that's over the top."
It also came out in court this week that accused motorcyclists Jason Brown and Robert Sims allegedly tried to pull Lien’s wife from the SUV and threatened her (“You’re going to get it, too”) after Brown broke the passenger window. “Mr. Sims is one of the most vicious of all the defendants,” said Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass. “Not only can he be seen at the second scene attempting to open the victim’s door, at the third scene he most clearly can be seen stomping on the victim as he lay helpless.”
Tagged
beating
manhattan
motorcycle rally road rage
motorcyclists
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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