Eliyahu Werdesheim, the member of the Orthodox Jewish citizens’ watch group who was convicted of assaulting a black teenager in Northwest Baltimore, avoided a prison sentence Wednesday and will serve three years probation.

He had faced up to 10 years in prison for the second-degree assault of then-15-year-old Corey Ausby in the November 2010 attack. Werdesheim, now 24, was also sentenced by Baltimore Circuit Judge Pamela J. White to three years of probation for false imprisonment, a sentence he can serve concurrently with the assault term.

Werdesheim and his now-22-year-old brother, Avi — who was cleared of all charges — were headed home on Nov. 19, 2010 around noon when they responded to a call from the patrol group, Shomrim, about a suspicious person in Park Heights.

The case sparked racial tension among the neighborhood’s ethnic groups.

Werdesheim also had been charged with carrying a deadly weapon, but he was cleared on that charge. The weapon in question was a walkie-talkie that Werdesheim allegedly used to strike Ausby in the head.

(Source: Baltimore Sun)