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Friday May 18, 2001

S.F. rabbi's alleged attacker arraigned; 7 felony counts

John Francis Henning III, the San Francisco lawyer accused of beating Rabbi Bentzion Pil and Michael Medvedev in an alleged hate
Assistant District Attorney Ana Gonzalez said Henning will be back in the San Francisco Hall of Justice May 25 to set a prelimin

"I believe that when all the facts have gone through, and we've had a public hearing on all the facts, my client will be exonerated," he said.

Henning, 30, works in the office of Jeffrey Walsh, a lawyer on retainer for the National Football League Players Association. Henning is the son of San Francisco lawyer John F. Henning Jr. and the grandson of John F. "Jack" Henning, a former U.C. regent and executive secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO's California Labor Federation from 1970 to 1996.

Henning is charged with seven felonies and eight total counts stemming from the alleged attack in the early morning hours of April 28, as the victims were emerging from a lengthy Shabbat service and dinner at Pil's San Francisco Richmond District home. The charges include two felony counts of aggravated assault, two felony counts of terrorist threats, two felony hate-crime charges, a count of felony-level battery and a misdemeanor-level battery charge.

Pil and Medvedev claim Henning accosted them with anti-Semitic slurs and spat at them before beating them severely enough to send both men to the hospital for emergency treatment.

-- Joe Eskenazi

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