Crime & Safety

L.B. Golfer Sentenced to Probation for Assault on Green

Editor's Note: This article was written by Joseph Kellard.

Grant Smith of Long Beach was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation for menacing two black golfers and using racial slurs on a golf course at Eisenhower Park in April.

Smith, 49, was charged with assault and assault as a hate crime after the incident but pled guilty to reduce the charges to attempted assault and aggravated harassment, having agreed to undergo anger management treatment.

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In Nassau County Court, Judge Meryl Berkowitz sentenced Smith and told him that he had anger problems that he needed to resolve and warned him to stay out of trouble during his probation, reminding him that he was convicted for misdemeanor assault in 2009, according to Newsday. Berkowitz said:

"If you come back before me because of any criminal activity, I will lock you up. Do you understand me?"

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Smith nodded and answered: "Yes."

According to Nassau County detectives, on April 9 Smith was playing golf alone at the Eisenhower Park white course when he approached two men on the third hole and made rude comments to them. The two men made it to the fifth hole when Smith began disturbing them again and yelled racial slurs at them, police said. He then struck one of the men on his leg with a golf club, breaking off the head of the club. Smith threatened to stab the two men with the broken club and fled the course as they called police, police said.

At his sentencing Sept. 25, Smith didn’t provide an explanation for his actions but told arresting officers that the two men “came at me first,” Newsday reports.


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