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Quote:Race case victim held in robbery

Snatched gold chain: cops

BY KERRY BURKE and ALISON GENDAR

An alleged victim in the recent Howard Beach racial attack was charged with robbing a teen of his wallet and gold chain on a Brooklyn subway, it was revealed yesterday.
And after Richard Wood was arrested, he even called hate crime cops working on the race beating case in a bid to get out of the robbery rap, sources said.

"Run me your wallet," Wood, 20, allegedly told his 18-year-old victim, Andy Orellana, as his partner pointed an automatic pistol at the teenager's head Sunday night, police sources said.

"I'm not going to give you my wallet over a pellet gun," the victim declared, prompting the gunman to eject a shell from the weapon - proof it was not a toy.

The victim turned over his wallet, and Wood snatched his chain, police sources said.

Wood was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery Sunday night after the teen pointed him out to transit cops outside a Brooklyn bodega. He was arraigned last night on robbery and grand larceny charges. His partner was still at large.

Wood was one of three black men attacked in Howard Beach on June 29 in what authorities called a hate crime.

The white attackers said they chased Wood and two pals because they believed the trio was trying to steal a gold chain from one of them. Wood and one of his buddies said they were in the Queens neighborhood to steal a car, cops have said.

One of the attackers admitted he smashed Wood's buddy Glenn Moore with a baseball bat while a second stole the fallen man's sneakers as a trophy.

Wood's arrest, while unrelated to the Howard Beach case, could undercut prosecutors' bias case, sources said yesterday.

"It bolsters the claims by the white guys that they attacked the black guys as retribution, not as a racial crime," said a detective familiar with the case.

Moore, who suffered a fractured skull in the Howard Beach assault, is to be released from Jamaica Hospital next week, his stepfather said yesterday.

Wood's aunt, who refused to give her name, said her nephew was set up.

"It was a setup because he was in the problem with Howard Beach," she said after Wood's arraignment.

The subway robbery unfolded about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday when Wood and a friend allegedly threatened the teen on the Manhattan-bound A train.

Wood snatched the victim's chain and, in an echo of the Howard Beach assault, tried to grab a pair of sneakers in the victim's bag, but the bag broke.

"The victim said they already had his wallet and chain, so leave him the sneakers, and they did," a police source said.

Wood and his pal got off the train after the Grant Ave. station, but pushed the victim so he couldn't get off. The victim got off at the next stop, and told transit cops of the robbery. The victim and cops spotted Wood four blocks from the subway station.

Wood tried to get out of the robbery arrest by seeking help from detectives who had investigated the alleged hate crime, police sources said.