#Duo accused of beating Connecticut hotel worker charged with hate crimes

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Philip Sarner (center) and Emily Orbay (right) assaulting a 59-year-old hotel worker in Mystic, Connecticut.
Stonington Police Department

A pair of suspects accused of beating a black Connecticut hotel worker in a racially motivated attack were busted in Brooklyn and charged with hate crimes this week, police said in a statement.

Authorities in Stonington, Connecticut said the US Marshals Service and the NYPD took Philip Sarner, 39, and Emily Orbay, 27, into custody in Brooklyn early Monday in connection to the June 26 attack at the Quality Inn in Mystic.

Both will be extradited to Connecticut to face a charge of intimidation based on bigotry and bias, the state’s hate crime statute, cops said.

Sarner will also face a second and third-degree assault charge, and Orbay will be charged with two counts of third-degree assault.

The victim, 59-year-old front desk worker Crystal Caldwell, told the Day that Sarner and Orbay were staying at the hotel when the man called down to the front desk to complain that the hot water in their room was not working.

Caldwell offered to have someone check it out or move them to a new room, but Sarner allegedly replied, “I’m going to come down there and kick your (expletive),” according to the report.

A short time later, Sarner came down to the lobby and lunged at Caldwell, pummeling her in the head, the outlet reported.

Caldwell hid in the employee break room, but was attacked a second time by both suspects when she wandered into the hallway to find some ice for her head, she told the paper.

Footage from the hotel, released by Caldwell’s attorney M. John Strafaci and obtained by the Day, shows a white man pushing, punching and kicking the employee, causing her to suffer a concussion and injuries to her face, eye, head, ribs, back and wrist.

During the attack, Caldwell claimed Sarner called her an “old monkey” and said, “Your life doesn’t matter,” according to the report.

Police say Caldwell as well as her attackers were hospitalized following the incident, but the duo could not be monitored due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Authorities intended to arrest both suspects the day of the attack, but they evaded cops by returning to the hotel from the hospital and taking off in their car.

Authorities told Newsday last week that the pair “do not have permanent addresses, but are known to be primarily in Nassau County, N.Y.”

A Stonington Police spokesman told The Post that both are “kind of transient people.”

“We are absolutely thrilled that these animals have been taken into custody,” Strafaci told the Day. “It’s been a long time since the assault happened, and Crystal has not gotten much sleep or rest while these animals were at large or on the loose.”