Man charged with attacking Muslim man outside Fort Pierce mosque in 2016 served 25 days in jail

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The man accused of severely beating a man outside a mosque and telling him to "go back to his county" during Ramadan in 2016 was released from jail Monday after striking a plea deal and serving 25 days, court records show.

Taylor Mazzanti, 27, of Port St. Lucie, had been charged with aggravated battery evidencing prejudice on the property of a religious institution.

Prosecutors said he could have faced life in prison if convicted of that charge.

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Mazzanti instead pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of battery on a person on the grounds of a religious institution.

As part of the plea, Mazzanti was sentenced to 30 days in the St. Lucie County Jail and four years of probation. He was also ordered to pay $9,100 in restitution to the man attacked and to attend anger management classes.

If he abides by all the conditions of the plea, he will not be adjudicated guilty and will avoid being labeled a "convicted felon."

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What happened

St. Lucie County sheriff's deputies were called to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce about 4 a.m. July 2, 2016. They found a man outside, his face bloodied and swollen and his two front teeth broken.

He told deputies he had just finished his predawn prayer and was trying to get inside his car to go home, but his keys were locked inside.

Mazzanti approached him and asked for identification, according to the Sheriff's Office. When he realized Mazzanti wasn't a law enforcement officer, the man told Mazzanti to go home.

Mazzanti instead lunged at him and punched him several times in the face and head, deputies said. The attack was captured on surveillance video.

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The man was wearing a long sleeved, traditional white tunic and had covered his head with a turban.

"I told him to back to his country," Mazzanti told deputies.

The man was taken to the emergency room at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute, where his lip was stitched up and he received emergency dental care, according to arrest records.

Mazzanti was picked up in his Jeep nearby. He told investigators "he thought the guy at the mosque was weird and he looked like he was breaking into a vehicle," arrest reports show.

"He tried to get identification from the guy and proof that he belonged there," deputies report.

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Mazzanti's Stuart lawyer, Richard Kibbey, told TCPalm in 2016 "there's been a complete misunderstanding of what happened that night."

"There's no evidence that there was any motivation by our client's actions of a hate crime or prejudice of anyone's ethnicity or religion," Kibbey said. "That's been blown out of proportion and we feel when the total facts come out he will be exonerated of that accusation."

Mazzanti was booked in jail May 1 and released Monday. He served a total of 25 days in the case.

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The Islamic Center, then located at 1104 W. Midway Road, moved in 2017 to nearby 3607 Oleander Ave.

The mosque was once attended by Omar Mateen, who on June 12 of the same year went on a shooting rampage at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, that left 49 dead. Mateen also died.

Several unsettling incidents were reported at the center in the months after the massacre. In September, a man set a fire to the mosque, severely damaging the building and prompting the move.

Joseph Schreiber, 34, is serving a 30-year prison sentence for the crime.

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