Harlem Restaurateur Guilty for Assault that Gave Victim Brain Damage, Jury Says

Dard Coaxum, a self-proclaimed "Harlem Gatsby," was found guilty of assault for punching a man so hard that the victim suffered permanent brain damage, according to the Post. Coaxum, a former partner in French bistro Cedric, punched event planned Julio Torres last summer in a deli after a conflict at a club earlier in the evening, sending Torres head first into the ground. Torres had been taunting Coaxum, but the jury didn't take to Coaxum's self-defense argument and declared the 46-year-old man guilty. Torres, 43, can no longer feed himself or walk. "He attacked Julio Torres because he was pissing him off," the prosecutor says. "The defendant doesn’t get to knock someone out because that person is taunting him." The restaurateur, whose family owns $15 million in property, will be under custody until the sentencing later this month. He faces up to a year in jail.