Sunrise Highway brawl leads to assault charges for father Patrick J. O'Connor, his two sons

A family’s bloody Sunrise Highway brawl in Lindenhurst in late December led to an overturned truck, jail and now felony assault indictments for three of the people involved, the Suffolk district attorney announced Friday. 

Patrick J. O’Connor, 38, son James O’Connor, 19, along with another son, a minor, were indicted on assault and related charges in connection with the Dec. 20 fight, according to District Attorney Ray Tierney. All three have pleaded not guilty.

The elder O'Connor is from Ireland and his sons are from England but they have been in the United States for several weeks, staying in Huntington Station.

“As alleged, these defendants brazenly began a physical brawl in the middle of Sunrise Highway, putting their family and the public at serious risk of harm,” Tierney said in a news release. “Fortunately, there were not more serious injuries or casualties that resulted out of this violent feud.”

Prosecutors said one of the victims received staples to his head, suffered two black eyes, and had bruising and pain in his shoulder and back. The other suffered an abrasion to his lip, bruising and cuts to his hands, and head and back pain. Newsday has previously reported that Patrick O'Connor appeared for the earlier arraignment missing a portion of his nose, and that James O'Connor appeared with an arm in a sling and a swollen face.

According to the release from Tierney's office, Patrick O’Connor tried to hit a 32-year-old cousin with beer bottles in a fight at a Centereach restaurant on Dec. 17. Their dispute resumed three days later when O’Connor and his cousin saw each other again in Hauppauge. The cousin and his father then got into a white GMC Sierra pickup truck and followed the Ford F-150 pickup truck that Patrick O’Connor was driving

As those trucks approached Sunrise Highway, James O’Connor arrived in a Toyota Tundra with his three younger siblings, ages 16, 12, and 4, in the vehicle. James O’Connor then allegedly rammed the back of the GMC Sierra, causing his own vehicle to flip onto its side. None of the children in the Toyota were injured.

When the cousin and his father got out of their GMC Sierra, Patrick O’Connor and the minor hit the cousin with sticks and James O’Connor also assaulted him, prosecutors said.

When the cousin’s brother showed up to the scene during the fight, the O’Connors assaulted him too, prosecutors alleged.

After passersby intervened, the defendants took off. Suffolk police arrested them later that day. A spokeswoman for Tierney said the origins of the dispute were unclear. Newsday has previously reported that it stemmed from an argument at traffic court in Hauppauge. 

At a Thursday arraignment, Acting Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Karen Kerr ordered the three held on $100,000 cash or $200,000 bonds. They were ordered to surrender their passports.

James O'Connor has been working part-time for a paving company since his arrival here, his lawyer said at a December arraignment following the arrests. His16-year-old brother is not working or going to school, prosecutors said.

Lawyers for the two adults did not respond to messages left at their offices and Suffolk Legal Aid, representing the minor, declined to comment. But at the December arraignment, lawyers called the bail requirements “excessive” and Legal Aid lawyer Christina Carpenter, representing the minor, argued it was the actions of the relatives following her client's father that led to the fight.   

James O’Connor is due back in court on Jan. 23; Patrick O’Connor and the minor are due back on Jan. 17.