A Orleans Parish magistrate judge ruled this week that a man accused of beating two St. Charles Avenue riders in a racially motivated attack, blinding one of them, should remain jailed on $27,500 bond, though state prosecutors and defenders respectively sought to increase and reduce that bond.
The suspect, for his part, claimed aloud that a hate crime had unfolded in the courtroom, not in the streetcar.
"You want to triple my bond—are you serious? That is hate," said Carlos Romious, 57, who appeared with his arm in a sling. "Detention on top of me being away from my family for Christmas, New Year? Incarcerated, about to miss Mardi Gras, that is not hate?"
Romious was arrested Dec. 22 on charges of second-degree battery, simple battery and felony hate crimes at the streetcar stop near the intersection of South Carrollton Avenue and Willow Street right after the attack. Victim Charles Washmon, who suffered a broken orbital bone, a concussion and the loss of his right eye, said Romious, who is Black, yelled racial slurs at him and another victim, both White.
But at his bond reduction hearing Monday, Romious and his attorney, public defender Jean-Pierre Marquet, denied that the beatings were racially motivated. Romious said the first victim kicked him while he was riding the streetcar with his family, and that Washmon called him the n— word when he confronted that individual.
"The hate crime statute is about selecting a victim based on their race," Marquet said at the hearing. "I do not think anything in the gist suggests he selected these two people because of their race. ... There were words said to him that could provoke him to anger. That is not what the hate crime statute is about."
Romious has two felony and six misdemeanor convictions, according to magistrate commissioner Jonathan Friedman, and if he were released, he would require the highest level of supervision because he is a risk level 5 on the public safety assessment scale—a tool judges use when making release and detention decisions. Since being booked on Dec. 22, Romious has been rebooked on an additional charge of battery of police officer for an incident that happened while he was in custody.
In light of those facts, Andre Gaudin, Jr., chief of screening at the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, asked that Romious' bond be doubled or tripled.
"Mr. Romious' tendencies toward violence don’t seem to be going in a downward direction since his arrest," Gaudin said.
Romious alleged that he was targeted in both the streetcar fracas and the multiple assaults against law enforcement officers.
"My batteries on police officers were not on the streets. They took place while I was incarcerated," said Romious, who acknowledged he has struggled with mental health issues. "I am a target for correctional officers who want to get status. Those were matters in which I was defending myself. It is more than the black and white you see before you, your honor. The individuals on the streetcar baited me."
Washmon, who is recovering from the concussion and surgery that removed the remnants of his damaged right eye, said he has lost work due to his medical issues and has been in dire financial straits. "I do not want this man to ever be on the street again, because he will kill somebody," Washmon said in a phone interview.
Friedman denied the motion to reduce Romious' bond. He also denied the verbal request to increase the bond. Romious remains jailed in the Orleans Parish Justice Center.