Federal prosecutors sought Wednesday to include Laguerre Payen's 2002 guilty plea in Rockland County as evidence of a longstanding hatred of Jews.
"Similar to this case, Payen drove out of his way to a predominantly Jewish neighborhood ... which strongly suggests that Payen's prior crime of assault had a racist or anti-Semitic motive," prosecutors said in court papers.
Both victims survived the shooting, though one still has part of a BB pellet in his eye, prosecutors said.
They argued yesterday that they should be allowed to reveal the earlier episode to jurors in Manhattan Federal Court to counter claims that Payen was entrapped, and too incompetent and timid to commit terrorism.
"Although different crimes, they are in many respects 'morally indistinguishable,'" prosecutors wrote. "Payen's prior conduct provides more insight into his violent character than the current offense."
Payen's lawyer asked District Judge Colleen McMahon to bar jurors from hearing evidence from the earlier case.
She gave him until Tuesday to file an objection.
Payen and his bumbling co-conspirators were busted in 2009 for a wildly incompetent alleged plot to blow up synagogues and shoot down military jets upstate.
Their trial has already featured numerous anti-Semitic screeds, mostly coming from the mouth of gang's leader, James Cromitie.
"These f---ing Jews get me sick," Cromitie said in a video played for jurors on Wednesday.
NY Daily News
