Cabbie's slashing will be tried as hate crime

A judge Wednesday upheld hate-crime charges against a college student accused of slashing a taxi driver's neck in an anti-Muslim attack last year.

Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers said a grand jury had had enough evidence to indict Michael Enright. The judge said he planned to set a later trial date on March 30.

Enright, his parents and his lawyer said nothing as they left court.

The 22-year-old film student has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault as hate crimes in the Aug. 24 stabbing.

Enright asked driver Ahmed Sharif whether he was Muslim, uttered an Arabic greeting and told him to "consider this a checkpoint" before cutting him with a folding knife, prosecutors said.

After his arrest, Enright declared himself "a patriot" and told the police officers who arrested him that "you allow them to blow up buildings in this country," according to authorities.

Enright's lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, has said the School of Visual Arts student was beset by alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder after a trip to Afghanistan to film a documentary. He plans a psychiatric defense.

When arrested, Enright was carrying an empty bottle of scotch and notebooks describing his Afghan experiences, authorities said.

Enright was profoundly troubled by his time in Afghanistan, where he was briefly embedded with troops, his lawyer said.

Enright was freed in October on $500,000 bail, with conditions requiring him to get alcohol-abuse treatment and mental-health care, among other things. He lives in Brewster.

If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.