A security guard who had been charged with siccing a dog on a Black man while working in a New Jersey restaurant and nightclub will face no jail time. Prosecutors decided to reduce his charge from second-degree aggravated assault to a lesser weapons charge.
The prosecution identified the dog as the security guard’s weapon in the violent 2021 confrontation that left then-26-year-old Khalif Hunter, of Burlington City, New Jersey, bleeding from bite wounds in the club’s parking lot.
Court documents show Steven T. Rudy, 34, of Virginia pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree charge of unlawful possession of a weapon (the canine) before Superior Court Judge Samuel Ragonese in Gloucester County, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Under the plea agreement negotiated by his lawyers, Rudy will receive 14 months of probation and must participate in a psychological evaluation.
Rudy will also have to undergo recommended treatments, anger management classes at a veterans hospital, and pay some sort of restitution to comply with his plea agreement.
The events leading to the July 29, 2021, confrontation reportedly began when Hunter objected that he was being singled out because of his race when he was asked to take off his baseball cap because the club, Adelphia, had a no-hats dress code.
A 15-second video clip from around 1 a.m. that night appears to show a young Black man thought to be Hunter on the ground in the parking lot and surrounded by club staff and security guards — including Rudy and the dog — at some point after being told his cap was not allowed. Hunter gets to his feet, yelling at the staff and walking away, and then screaming “p##sy” at Rudy.
With his dog straining at the leash, Rudy rushes toward Hunter, who backpedals and falls just as the guard and dog close on him. The video abruptly ends there.
Despite the video not showing every detail, the prosecution was able to establish the man did “suffer several puncture…
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