Sasha Masri was minutes from accepting a plea bargain for his alleged attack on Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy on Tuesday morning, with four criminal charges slated to be cut to one misdemeanor count of assault.
But when Nassau County Judge Philip Grella asked Masri to recount his version of the fracas at a hearing, Masri held his ground and refused to admit intentionally injuring Levy, who suffered a facial laceration and a broken arm in a violent confrontation with Masri at an October board meeting.
And so the trial began, with Masri facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the assault, drug and weapons charges brought after the incident.
Masri, a Saddle Rock resident who has run unsuccessful campaigns for trustee and mayor, had an expletive-laden argument with Levy after accusing the mayor of financial impropriety following an Oct. 3 board meeting, according to both the prosecution and the defense.
That is where the accounts diverge.
Assistant District Attorney Christine Geier described Masri punching Levy in the face while holding a set of keys, and then throwing Levy into a bench during the ensuing fight before fleeing the scene.
Masri and his attorney Robert McDonald painted Levy as the aggressor, saying that while Masri slapped Levy, the mayor and Trustee David Schwartz then attacked him and that Levy suffered his injuries after falling down when Masri attempted to escape the beating.
Geier, who later cited expert testimony from the plastic surgeon who treated Levy’s head wound as evidence that he did not sustain the injury from falling, described Masri as a political gadfly and an “occasionally disruptive” presence at village board meetings.
Masri approached Levy and Schwartz after the meeting to discuss village financial matters, and when the conversation became heated Levy began berating Masri and encouraging Schwartz to ignore him, according to Geier.
“Mr. Masri became angry at Dr. Levy and told him to go [expletive] himself,” said Geier. “To which Dr. Levy responded ‘go [expletive] yourself and the woman who gave birth to you.”
The defense described a similar verbal dispute, but McDonald said Levy also called Masri’s mother a whore.
“At this, the defendent became enraged. He threw a punch at Dr. Levy’s head while holding his keys in his hand. The punch connected and the keys sliced open Dr. Levy’s forehead, an incision that would later require 14 stitches,” Geier said.
Masri then charged at Levy as the mayor walked around the podium, according to Geier, after which Levy succeeded in putting Masri in a headlock. When Masri escaped Levy’s grasp he shoved the mayor into the bench, breaking Levy’s shoulder in three places, according to Geier.
Levy, an ophthalmologist, was not able to practice for weeks, Greir said.
Masri then left Village Hall after recovering his keys, which he had dropped in the altercation, Geier said.
“At the conclusion of the trial,” Greir said, “the relevant and credible evidence will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.”
According to McDonald, the fight unfolded differently.
“This case is not really about assault. This case is about pride and hubris,” said McDonald in his opening statement.
McDonald said that Masri repeatedly asked questions about the village’s financial dealings and payments to contractors, but was shut down by Levy.
“The mayor did not want any discussion of finances at the meeting,” McDonald said.
After Levy insulted Masri’s mother, McDonald said, Levy slapped him – open handed, and without holding keys. Levy then walked around the podium, grabbed Masri and began punching him with Schwartz’s help, according to McDonald.
When Masri tried to escape Levy fell and struck his head on the dais, according to McDonald.
“That is how the injury to his eye was created,” McDonald said. “The proof, your honor, will show that all the injuries in this case were caused by the actions of the mayor himself.”
McDonald laid out grand jury testimony and audits of village contract payments that he said showed misdeeds by Levy which would demonstrate why Levy and Schwartz were hostile to Masri.
According to McDonald, a non-public audit released in December – months after the incident – found that Levy had authorized and then personally cashed checks to a contractor named Next Capital, and then paid employees, including his daughter.
McDonald said Masri had challenged the board over those payments, and that the board was aware of the situation during the Oct. 3 meeting.
Geier challenged the relevance of the audit, as its results were not known to the board before the fight.
But Grella allowed McDonald to question Schwartz about the finances, noting that the dispute could shed light on whether Schwartz or Levy had any motivation to lie.
Schwartz testified that Masri was the aggressor in the fight, and that he believed Levy had suffered a stroke immediately after the incident due to his broken arm dangling at his side.
Dr. Alan Freedman, the plastic surgeon who stitched up Levy’s head wound after the incident, testified that the injury was in all likelihood sustained by a sharp object, not by an impact with a podium.
Freedman, a Saddle Rock resident who was called to treat Levy by Levy’s wife, recorded a phone call between him and Masri months after the incident where Masri alleged that Levy was “signing construction permits and taking bribes.”
“It was a simple smack in the face for calling my mother a whore,” said Masri in the recording, which was played in the courtroom.
During cross examination, McDonald repeatedly asked Freedman whether it was possible that the wound was caused by an impact with the edge of a bench or podium, or a nail sticking out of the wood. Freedman said that while it was possible, it was extremely unlikely.
“It was obvious that it was caused by a sharp object,” Freedman said.
Grella did not reach a verdict before publication, and Levy said outside the court room that he anticipated days more of hearings following Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s testimony.
In addition to the assault charge, Masri faces a weapons charge for his alleged strike with his keys and a drug charge for a suboxone tablet that retired Nassau Detective Brett Nordmann, who worked Masri’s arrest, testified had been found in Masri’s possession during his arrest processing.
