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from SF Gate

PLACERVILLE
Jonathan Curiel
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A couple who allegedly beat a San Francisco man on a Lake Tahoe beach last month will be arraigned today on charges of assault and committing a hate crime, the El Dorado County district attorney said Tuesday.

Joseph Silva, who is in his 50s, and his wife, Georgia Silva, 49, face multiple charges of assault stemming from the July 14 incident. The couple allegedly knocked the Indian American victim to the ground and kicked his face, fracturing several bones.

Minutes before the assault, the Silvas allegedly yelled racial epithets at the victim's fiancee and her cousin, who are also Indian American, District Attorney Peter O'Hara said.

The Silvas, who live in South Lake Tahoe, believed the man, his fiancee and her cousin "were Iraqi or Iranian or Middle Eastern," O'Hara said.

An attorney for the three, Edwin Prather, said the Silvas called them "terrorists" and "relatives of Osama bin Laden." Georgia Silva sat on the male victim while her husband repeatedly kicked him in the head, Prather said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/22/BAGSRMMLC.DTL