• Police: Monticello men tried to run down Hasidic patrons outside bakery

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  • MONTICELLO - Two Monticello men were arrested on Sunday after police say they drove a car at people standing outside a Jewish bakery, yelled ethnic slurs at the Hasidic patrons and then punched one man.
    Police say Esai Diaz, 21, and Brandon Morales, 20, were charged. At 9:35 p.m. police responded to Fialkoff's bungalow colony on Waverly Avenue.
    Witnesses told police that Diaz, who was driving a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder, tried to hit people standing in the bakery's parking lot. Morales, seated in the front passenger's seat, reportedly yelled, “Go home, go back to your (expletive) Jews.”
    “Nobody was hit,” Lt. Mark Johnstone said. “People did feel that Diaz deliberately drove at them.”
    After driving off, the car returned a few minutes later. Police say Morales got out of the car and punched a man in the arm. They then attempted to drive away but the car wouldn't start. So they fled on foot with some of the bakery's patrons chasing them. Officers arrested the pair a short time later.
    Johnstone said police haven't determined what, if anything, started this.
    Diaz had eight active suspensions on his license, police say.
    Diaz was charged with felony reckless endangerment and misdemeanor aggravated unlicensed operation; Morales was charged with felony aggravated harassment and a separate violation of harassment.
    They were arraigned before Monticello Justice Josephine Finn and taken to the Sullivan County Jail on $2,500 bail.
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