(Reuters) - It was the week of Chinese New Year, and Jian Zhen Huang was climbing her sister’s doorstep in Brooklyn with cups and other supplies for the celebration inside. Suddenly, a young man grabbed her, punched her in the face several times, knocked her down to the pavement and stole her phone.
The housewife spent that February 2013 night at a hospital and left with her head wrapped in gauze, staples in her scalp and black circles around her eyes - “like a panda,” her husband said in an affidavit. Headaches and sleepless nights persisted for months.