CLEVELAND, Ohio – A newly released video shows the
interaction on Interstate 90 between an Ohio congressman and a Westlake doctor who was later charged with ethnic intimidation.
The cell phone footage shows Feras Hamdan recording U.S. Rep. Max Miller, R-Bay Village, making a homophobic slur
and calling him racist.
Miller told police Hamdan, 36, threatened him and his family while swerving toward his car and showing a picture of the Palestinian flag during the incident last month.
“This is the congressman, that piece of s— f—– congressman that’s against Palestine,” Hamdan said in a video he took of the incident. “This racist – Jewish – he can’t even look at me. He knows I’m recording him.”
The video, 911 calls, police reports and other investigative documents from the June 19 incident were released Monday by Rocky River’s law director, Michael O’Shea, after cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer filed a public records request for the documents.
Miller told police that Hamdan threatened to kill him and his family and said “I know where you live.”
The video recordings capture only part of the encounter and do not show Hamdan threatening Miller or his family.
Hamdan’s attorney, Issa Elkhatib, could not be reached for comment. Elkhatib has argued the charges are “preposterous” and that Miller is “weaponizing the system to ruin an innocent man’s life.”
Miller told police he initially tried to ignore Hamdan, who began the incident by laying on his horn while the two were driving on the eastbound highway. Then Hamdan pulled up beside Miller, rolled his window down and began screaming at Miller, the congressman told police.
Hamdan swerved his car toward Miller, who then put his hand on his gun but did not point it at Hamdan, Miller told police.
Last week, a
Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Hamdan on charges of ethnic intimidation
, tampering with evidence, aggravated menacing and menacing. The menacing charges are misdemeanors, while the other two are felonies.
When police seized Hamdan’s phone, they discovered several messages related to the incident had been deleted.
In those deleted messages, police say Hamdan texted a friend “You won’t believe who I got into it with this (morning),” and “Max well [sic] Miller pos,” alongside a brief video of the encounter.
Hamdan’s arraignment is scheduled for July 25 at 8:30 a.m. in the Cuyahoga County Justice Center. Hamdan is free after posting $500,000 bond soon after his first court appearance.
