FORMER MEMBER OF KOREAN FUK CHING GANG CONVICTED OF ASSAULTING OWNER AND TWO WAITERS IN JACKSON HEIGHTS RESTAURANT.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a former member of the Korean Fuk Ching gang was convicted of assaulting two waiters and the owner of the Core Cafe and Restaurant in Jackson Heights.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Alejandro (Alex) Chung, 25, of 31-70 41st Street, Astoria. He was convicted of assault in the second degree and criminal mischief in the fourth degree after a one week jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Mark H. Spires. The defendant will be sentenced on July 22.

District Attorney Brown said that at the time of sentencing he will ask that the defendant be sentenced as a second violent felony offender. Under this procedure Chung could face a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison. At the time of the assault he violated the terms of a Federal supervised release that he received for a racketeering conviction from 1993. He faces deportation back to Argentina for this charge.

According to District Attorney Brown, Chung and a female entered the Core Cafe and Restaurant on January 4, 1998 at around 8:00 p.m. for dinner. At closing time, he demanded more alcohol but was refused service because of the time. The defendant then shoved the waiter and grasped him in a headlock, throwing the waiter to the floor. The waiter got up and the defendant repeated the same procedure, this time also punching the waiter in the face, and shouted, "I'm Alex, don't you know who I am?" This statement enabled the waiter to later identify him as a member of the notorious Fuk Ching gang from an incident five years before. The unidentified female hit the waiter in the back of the head. A second waiter came to the defense of the first waiter and removed him to the back of the restaurant. Chung then went on a rampage throwing objects at the two waiters, hitting one in the head, causing a laceration and extensive bleeding. The two waiters then retreated to the kitchen at which point the owner of the restaurant tried to subdue the defendant. He then knocked over tables and threw glass and hand carved objects from the restaurant's decor, causing approximately $1500 in damage. While the police were being called, the defendant and his female companion left the restaurant. When the owner attempted to write down the license plate of their car, the defendant came back and threatened her while the female assaulted her. The defendant was arrested on January 12 at his place of business and identified by the victims.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Charles Walsh of the Queens District Attorney's Anti Bias/Youth Gang Bureau under the overall supervision of Mariela P. Stanton, Bureau Chief, prosecuted the case.