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Nicholas “Fat Nick” Minucci chuckled and snickered his way through his arraignment last Friday on a 19-count grand jury indictment charging him with the beating of a black man in Howard Beach on June 29.

Minucci, dressed in a white long johns top and oversized sweat pants, looked back at his mother in the Kew Gardens courtroom at the end of the hearing, nodded toward the prosecutor and chuckled, “Tell him to get a new suit.”
Minucci was taking a shot at Assistant DA Brian Kohm, who has worn a tan suit to every court appearance since the teen was arrested for beating Glenn Moore, 22, with a baseball bat in the racially charged attack.

Wearing handcuffs, Minucci snickered as he was led from Queens Supreme Court Justice James Griffith’s courtroom.
Maria Minucci defended her son, shouting, “What do you expect? He’s locked up all alone, 23 hours a day.” Minucci has been held in protective custody since his arrest.

Maria Minucci later got into a shouting match with Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter, who refused to agree to a plea deal that would have allowed Minucci to go free on bail on a Violation of Probation charge in connection with a 2002 assault on a schoolmate.

Minucci is being held without bail on the probation violation though he was issued $500,000 bail in the June 29 attack. Attorneys for the Howard Beach teen have repeatedly asked Buchter to set bail or release Minucci on the VOP charge, so his family can arrange bail and bring him home.

When Buchter refused to consider the plea deal, Maria Minucci banged on a wooden gate separating court spectators from the court well and shouted, “I want a new lawyer! My son’s been in lockup for six months – and I’ve had it. It’s just not fair.”

Minucci faces 25 years in jail for assault as a hate crime, robbery and other charges in the June 29 attack. His alleged accomplice, Anthony Ench, 22, recently pleaded guilty to attempted assault as a hate crime and robbery, and was sentenced to two years behind bars.