<![CDATA[HATEWATCH: OFF-DUTY COP ARRESTED FOR RACIST ATTACK]]>

Barcelo for News

Off-duty cop Juan Nunez was part of a gang accused of beating up a Long Island black man.

An off-duty NYPD cop was part of a gang accused of beating up a black man while yelling racial epithets outside a Long Island deli on Sunday, police said Monday.

Police Officer Juan Nunez, 32, of Freeport, was one of four Hispanic men charged with assault following the 8:10 a.m. attack on 52-year-old Daryl Jackson of Roosevelt.

“There’s no question that during that assault hateful language was used, the N-word was used. There were references to him going back to Africa,” said Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. “That will not be tolerated here in Nassau County.”

But, he added, the incident started after Jackson, who was loitering and possibly panhandling, refused to leave the premises – meaning the attack wasn’t motivated by race and may not fit the legal definition of a hate crime.

Nunez, a seven-year veteran who serves at the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway, Queens, has been suspended, the NYPD said.

The officer and three other defendants – Jose Miguel Vargas, 35, of Freeport, and Persio Vargas, 53, and Kelvin Vargas, 24, both of the Bronx – all face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The attack took place as Jackson was waiting to use a pay phone outside Midway Deli in Roosevelt. After Jackson refused to leave, the Vargases – the proprietors of the deli – and Nunez surrounded him.

A brief argument ensued, and Jackson may have thrown a punch, police said. The men then pummeled him with their fists and a bat, causing head and neck injuries.

“I’m doing a little bit better,” Jackson said yesterday from his hospital bed. The divorced father of two added he’s still in a lot of pain.

His lawyer Anthony Grandinette denied that Jackson initiated the assault, calling him “the victim of a heinous and senseless crime, assault, which seems to have been motivated purely by racial hatred and intolerance.”

But Sandy Vargas, 23, a relative of the deli owners, said that Jackson was bothering customers and later punched Kelvin Vargas, prompting others to intervene.

“Ninety percent of the people who come in here are African-American,” he said at the store. “I just want people to know it’s not a racial attack.”

Law enforcement officials said that hate crime charges are still possible.