A Brooklyn woman charged with jabbing a Midtown rabbi with a syringe claims mistaken identity, even as prosecutors say she targeted Jews and walked away from a Muslim.
Anna Mochalova, 32, faces multiple hate-crime charges after two alleged attacks minutes apart in Midtown Manhattan near the Diamond District, prosecutors told a Manhattan Criminal Court judge.
A complaint from the Manhattan district attorney’s office describes the Wednesday assaults as hate crimes. Prosecutors say she selected her targets because she believed they were Jewish, then left a third man alone after he said he was Muslim.
Her lawyer told the court there may be an identification problem and that the claims may not even belong to her client. Judge Linda Capitti set bail at $50,000, citing the seriousness of the allegations and surveillance video of the alleged attacks. Mochalova is due back in court on Oct. 29.
According to charging papers and court statements, the first alleged victim was a 26-year-old rabbi. Prosecutors say Mochalova jabbed him with a syringe in Midtown. Fox News reported the man, described in Hasidic clothing, was stabbed in the lower back and hospitalized.
Minutes later and two blocks away, prosecutors say she went after a second man wearing a yarmulke. She allegedly bumped into him several times, leaving a stinging sensation in his right arm. Fox News reported a forearm cut on that victim.
Before moving on, she allegedly told him to get clear of the area and claimed she had a gun. Assistant District Attorney Emily Hong laid out the motive in open court.
Hong told the judge the defendant chose both men for the same reason.
"She selected both of her targets because she believed them to be Jewish,"
Hong said, and added that the conduct was “scary and concerning” and that the defendant faces serious charges as a result.
CBS News reported the sequence around 5:50 p.m. on Oct. 21 on West 47th Street in the Diamond District, including an alleged needle attack and a threat drawn from court documents: that she told a victim to go away and that she had a gun and would kill him.
Prosecutors say Mochalova then approached a third man, asked about his background, and learned he was Muslim. They say she spared him further harassment and walked away.
That detail sits at the center of the hate-crime theory: two men she believed were Jewish were allegedly assaulted within minutes; a man who identified as Muslim was not. The pattern is what the Manhattan DA’s office put before the court as intentional selection, not random street violence.
Just The News reported Mochalova, of Brooklyn, was arrested Saturday and faces counts including assault, menacing, aggravated harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon. Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters in Crown Heights, said one victim is a young man from that Lubavitch community and thanked law enforcement for the response.
Defense lawyer Lila Carpenter did not treat the accusations lightly in her wording. She still drew a hard line on proof and identity. Carpenter told the court her client had no prior arrests and is gainfully employed, and she floated a possible mix-up on who committed the acts.
Carpenter’s statement to the court was direct.
"These allegations are concerning. Whether they’re my client’s is a different story,"
she said, and separately argued “there may be an ID issue.”
Judge Capitti was not persuaded to wave off the case. The judge set $50,000 bail and pointed to the gravity of the claims plus surveillance video of the alleged Midtown attacks. The Post reported the court record and the defense pushback from the Sunday appearance.
Yitty, a 31-year-old coordinator with Manhattan Shomrim, told The Post the Jewish community was glad the court took the matter seriously. She also warned about release.
"You know, having her back outside is just a danger to everybody outside. She needs to get help,"
Yitty said.
The case lands in a city where anti-Jewish incidents have dominated the hate-crime ledger. Fox News noted that anti-Jewish incidents accounted for 245 of 463 confirmed New York City hate crimes through September, more than half the total, with the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and community groups involved in the response to these Midtown assaults.
A person in the Diamond District area described the mood after the arrests and charges, saying the block has many Jewish people and that everyone is on edge, and that it is hard not to be. Community voices framed the hate-crime charging decision as recognition of what residents say they already feel on the street.
Mochalova remains accused, not convicted. The defense is free to test identification, video, and every element of the complaint. Prosecutors still have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt on Oct. 29 and beyond.
What the public record already shows is not subtle: a syringe attack on a young rabbi, a second Jewish man threatened and left with a stinging arm injury minutes later, a stated gun threat, and a third approach that ended when the man said he was Muslim. That is the conduct the Manhattan DA labeled a hate crime and the conduct a criminal court judge called serious enough for substantial bail backed by surveillance video.
Jewish New Yorkers should not need a syringe, a yarmulke, and a stranger’s religious test on a Midtown sidewalk to get the city to treat antisemitic violence as the targeted attack it is.
