Man Faces Hate Crime Charge in Assault : Courts: Authorities say defendant attacked 70-year-old immigrant because of his ethnicity.

A homeless man pleaded not guilty Thursday in Glendale Municipal Court to felony assault as a hate crime in an attack on a 70-year-old Armenian immigrant.

Police said Edmond S. Antone, 45, shouted the Armenian word for stupid and ethnic insults Tuesday as he attacked Sarkis Shavaladian on a street in Glendale, and later complained that Armenians were taking jobs from native-born Americans.

Glendale police said Antone jumped from behind a bush on Glenoaks Boulevard, grabbed Shavaladian by the lapels of his suit, threw him onto the hood of a car and pummeled him.

Bystanders who rescued Shavaladian said Antone shouted ethnic slurs against Armenians as he punched and kicked the man, an arrest report stated.

“All of them should go back where they came from,” Antone told the arresting officer, according to the report. “They take our homes, our jobs, they buy up everything, and look at me. I was born here. They don’t belong here.”

Municipal Commissioner Daniel F. Calabro set bail at $100,000. Antone is being held in Los Angeles County Jail, awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 18 in Glendale Municipal Court.

Bozajian said that Antone is being prosecuted for a hate crime--handled by the district attorney’s organized crime and anti-terrorism division--because the attack appeared to be motivated only by the victim’s nationality.

The assault charge ordinarily carries a sentence of two to four years in prison, but the hate crime designation can add one to three years to that.

Shavaladian, who does not speak much English, said he had seen Antone only once before, “a long time ago,” and was confused about why he would be singled out.

“What are Armenians to him?” Shavaladian asked Thursday, complaining of pain in his wrist where Antone allegedly wrenched it. Shavaladian, who came to America from Iran two years ago to live with his son, also suffered face and chest bruises.

In a previous case, Antone pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a city animal control worker who confiscated Antone’s dog in July, 1992, said Assistant Dist. Atty. James Bozajian.

Antone apparently began living on the streets in Glendale shortly after his girlfriend entered a convalescent hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.