Suspect in attack on Asian family at NoHo McDonald’s is charged with felony, pleads not guilty

A Sylmar man pleaded not guilty to two batterey charges after being accused of rear-ending a Filipino family in May as they ordered fries at a North Hollywood McDonald’s drive-thru, and then uttered racial slurs and physically assaulted the victims.

Nicholas Weber, 31, is charged with one felony count of battery with serious bodily injury and a misdemeanor count of battery, along with a hate-crime allegation.

The charges stem from a May 13 confrontation at McDonald’s when Weber allegedly rear-ended the car occupied by Nerissa Roque, 47, and her daughter Patricia Roque, 19. In a confrontation largely caught on the daughter’s cell phone video, the driver — uttering anti-Asian slurs — got out of his vehicle and approached them, threatening to “kill” them, according to the family.

The women called police, and while waiting Nerissa Roque’s husband, Gabriel Roque, arrived at the scene. Weber then allegedly attacked Nerissa and Gabriel, leaving the 62-year-old man with injuries including a broken rib, according to the family. That confrontation was also caught on cell phone video.

Weber was not jailed after the confrontation, but was later charged and scheduled to be arraigned June 8. He failed to appear in court, prompting a judge to issue a bench warrant, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He was arrested for an unrelated matter in Orange County and held on the warrant, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The family and leaders of Filipino immigrant-support groups rallied outside the District Attorney’s Office in Van Nuys demanding a full prosecution.

“This was the most traumatic experience of our lives. I feared that the suspect would kill us because of what we looked like — because we are Asian,” Patricia Roque said in a statement. “We are demanding a full investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and demand that this case be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

In announcing Weber’s June 21 arrest, District Attorney George Gascón said, “The unprovoked assault on members of our community is wrong and will not be tolerated. Our message against violence and racial hatred must be loud and clear. We will hold accountable the people who commit hate crimes in Los Angeles County.”

Weber has remained behind bars since being taken into custody, according to jail records. He is due back in court Aug. 19, when a date is scheduled to set a hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to allow the case to proceed to trial.

Leading up to his arrest, dozens of activists rallied on on Friday, June 17, standing beside the Roque family and demanding action from Gascon.

“We’re here to hold the government accountable for their lack of response and to demand that District Attorney George Gascon prosecute Nicholas Weber to the fullest extent of the law,” said Katie Joaquin, board president of the Filipino Migrant Center, on June 17.

In a video taken by the daughter, Patricia Roque, a man can be seen verbally attacking the family with racist language and motions mocking their Asian background.

The daughter said that day that the family was “still fearful for our lives,” and had learned that the alleged attacker lived near them in North Hollywood. The family and neighbors were concerned that he would continue to target them.

Joaquin, of the Filipino Migrant Center, said members of the Roque family had taken up causes for their community, and now it was the community’s turn to stand up for the family.

She said she first met the mother, Nerissa Roque, when she fought to “recover back wages (for healthcare workers) from a big millionaire employer.”

Nerissa’s son, Patrick, is an activist “fighting for the rights and welfare of migrant workers,” Joaquin said.

Other groups who rallied behind the family in June included the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), Migrante Los Angeles, Kabataan Alliance, the Bayanihan Kollective, and Anakbayan.

At that time, Patricia Roque told the Los Angeles Daily News she was disappointed by law enforcement’s response to the attack on her parents.