Homeless Man Held in Hate Crime : Courts: Edmond S. Antone, 45, pleads innocent to felony assault in attack on Armenian immigrant.

Shouting the Armenian word for “stupid” and other ethnic insults, a homeless man attacked a 70-year-old Armenian immigrant on the street, and later complained that Armenians were taking jobs from native-born Americans, police said Thursday.

Edmond S. Antone, 45, pleaded innocent in Glendale Municipal Court on Thursday to felony assault as a hate crime in the attack Tuesday on Sarkis Shavaladian, who emigrated to America from Iran two years ago to live with his son.

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

Bystanders who rescued Shavaladian said Antone continued to shout 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 police 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.”

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

Bozajian said that Antone was 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 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 also suffered face and chest bruises.

Antone apparently began living on the streets in that neighborhood of Glendale shortly after his girlfriend, Constance Devaney, became a patient at the Glenoaks Convalescent Hospital on Glenoaks Boulevard, said Ann Fenton, director of social services for the Glenoaks hospital.

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Devaney, who had lived on the streets with Antone, had been transferred there from Olive View Memorial Hospital in Sylmar, Fenton said.

Known sometimes by his street nickname, “Pick-up Eddie,” Antone frequently showed up at the hospital drunk and dirty, she said. She described him as “very vocal and loud,” saying she feared Antone would attack her or a nursing supervisor, and that hospital employees were considering seeking a restraining order against him.

She added that she had heard him yelling at Armenians in the neighborhood before, but did not know why.

Chahe Keuroghelian, intercultural relations coordinator for the Glendale Police Department, said the last hate crime in Glendale was about a year ago when an Armenian’s car was vandalized.

Just under 20% of Glendale’s 195,000 residents are of Armenian descent.