Photo: Frederick Guinta Courtesy, www.eastvillagenews.com
By ALEX VAUGHN
A drunken out-of-work exterminator is heading to prison for three-and-a-half years for slugging and slurring the bartender at Julius Bar on W. 10th St., the city’s oldest gay bar, back in October.
“I had no hatred in my heart,” Frederick Giunta, 45, said as he was sentenced in Manhattan yesterday morning on charges of attempted robbery and hate-crime assault.
“I don’t consider myself a violent person. I do accept the guilt,” Giunta said. “I do have remorse for what I’d done.” Cops said a soused Giunta yelled antiblack and anti-gay slurs as he struck a black bartender who’d refused him service.
“What are you going to do, you f—ing n- —?” Guinta had yelled while striking the 26-year-old bartender in the face. “You are a f—ing f—–.”
“Today’s sentencing serves as a reminder that there is no tolerance for bias-related violence,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said afterward.
“Our office’s Hate Crimes Unit, formed a few months prior to the crime that led to yesterday’s sentencing, will continue to support the diverse communities of New York by aggressively investigating and prosecuting hate-motivated offenses,” the DA said.
Defense lawyer Hershel Katz countered that his client wasn’t really a bigot — just a foul-mouthed drunk. “He is basically an alcoholic and got into a situation he shouldn’t have.” Giunta will serve an additional two years — on top of today’s sentence — as punishment for a prior parole violation, said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner. His lawyer said that the spewing antigay and racist insults while attacking a patron at one of New York City’s oldest gay bars was spurred by drunkenness.
The october incident occured at Julius, a Manhattan tavern where a 1966 “sip-in” helped usher in the gay-rights movement.
The assault, which unfolded shortly after several other incidents authorities characterized as anti-gay attacks around the city, spurred an outcry from gay-rights advocates.
In Giunta’s case, police said the victim was trying to defuse a dispute between Giunta and another customer Oct. 11 when Giunta hit the victim in the face, disparaging his race and using an anti-gay epithet. The victim, whose name authorities did not disclose, is black.
Giunta’s lawyer, Hershel Katz, said Giunta’s behavior stemmed from inebriation, not malice.
“He was drunk as a skunk and, basically, his stupidity kicked in, more than anything else,” Katz said after court Tuesday. “He doesn’t bear anyone ill will.”
Giunta also pleaded guilty to attempted robbery for grabbing at another man’s wallet and punching him at another bar earlier that evening. He was jailed while awaiting his sentence, on March 8.
Julius’ website stresses that it welcomes “ALL visitors and locals” but notes that it has been a gay gathering place since the 1950s. In 1966, several gay-rights activists went to the Greenwich Village bar and ordered drinks – with journalists in tow – to protest liquor regulators’ policies against serving gays.
The “sip-in” contributed to changes that ultimately allowed gay bars to operate openly.
