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Biker in SUV Driver Beating Identified by Unlucky 13 Sweatshirt, DA Says

By Trevor Kapp | October 8, 2013 1:45pm | Updated on October 8, 2013 2:52pm
 Craig Wright, 29, was charged with gang assault, unlawful imprisonment and other crimes for chasing a man and his family in an SUV, pulling him out of the car and beating him on Sept. 29, 2013.
Craig Wright
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MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — The number 13 turned out to be Craig Wright's unlucky number, prosecutors said.

The Canarsie man was caught on a viral YouTube video sporting the ill-fated numeral on the back of his sweatshirt while attacking an SUV driver following a chase along the Henry Hudson Parkway Sept. 29, prosecutors said.

Wright, 29, approached the driver’s side window of Alexian Lien's Range Rover, punched him, dragged him out of the vehicle and stomped on his head and body before Lien lost consciousness, as the victim’s wife and 2-year-old daughter looked on in horror, prosecutors said.

“(This was) a brazen and brutal attack in which this defendant was an active participant,” said Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino at Wright's arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon.

Motorcyclists Assault SUV Driver After Chase
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YouTube/Daphne Avalon

It is unclear how investigators found Wright, but he admitted to being the man seen in photos at the attack wearing the 13 sweatshirt, a black helmet with spikes and sunglasses.

Wright, who was dressed in a black Nike hoodie and dark pants, was arraigned Tuesday morning on charges of gang assault, assault and unlawful imprisonment and ordered held on $150,000 bond.

He's the fourth biker to be charged in the Sept. 29 incident, which unfolded just before 2 p.m. as Lien drove his Range Rover north on the Henry Hudson Parkway near 125th Street and was surrounded by a group of bikers, cops said.

Lien bumped the back of a biker's tire, setting off a wave of anger from fellow bikers who began hitting his vehicle with their helmets, cops said.

In a bid to escape, Lien plowed over Edwin Mieses Jr., leaving him possibly paralyzed with a broken spine and two broken legs, according to his family.

The bikers, who slashed Lien's tires, pursued him to 178th Street and eventually trapped him in slow traffic, smashing open his SUV windows and pulling him from the car, beating him in front of his family, cops said.

Lien sustained lacerations above each eye, cuts to the cheek and abrasions on the hand, back and shoulder. He has not been charged, cops said. Defense lawyer Mitchell Elman said his client is a life-long city resident who recently worked at a company that provided development services to the mentally disabled.

He said they will fight the charges.

“Mr. Wright has absolutely no criminal record. This defendant has a valid New York State driver's license,” Elman said. “Mr. Wright has every right to fight the charges and plans to plead not guilty.”

He is next due in court Oct. 11.