David Paterson’s neighbor recalls similar harrowing attack in UES neighborhood: ‘Plays in my head over and over’

An Upper East Side dad was attacked by a group of thugs nearly a month ago — near the same spot where former Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were accosted Friday night.

The family, who are Paterson’s neighbors, spoke out Saturday about the terrifying ordeal after word of the assault on Paterson and Anthony Sliwa spread.

The Sept. 5 incident was sparked after a bizarre confrontation between the family’s 17-year-old daughter, her guardian and the attackers on the Q train.

“’What are you looking at with your ugly teeth?’” the teens asked the girl, who has a genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome.

“’You’re retarded.’”

When her babysitter, who accompanies her on the subway, stood up to defend her, the teens asked if the woman wanted to fight, recalled Melissa Felsher, the girl’s mom, who asked the youngster remain anonymous out of fear for her safety.

“They said ‘Slavery was abolished years ago. Why are you protecting her?’” Felsher said.

The babysitter is black. 

Everyone got off the train at 96th Street, but the teens then stole the babysitter’s phone and started circling her and her charge. 

That’s when the teen called her mom.

“Mommy, mommy, help! They’re surrounding us!” Felsher, 57, remembered, breaking down in tears, “I started running toward the train stop. I called the police.”

She also called the girl’s father, Gary Portnoy, who ran to the station only to have the kids jump him. 

“One kid swung a cane at me, and next thing you know they’re all piling on. I got entangled with the one kid, and next thing you know, they jumped on me and started pounding on me while I was trying to fight back,” Portnoy, 55, said. 

“I had a bloody nose, my head was all bruised, I was getting kicked and punched.”

The dad was left with a golf ball sized bump on his head and needed to get checked for a concussion and broken bones.

“It took like 20 minutes for police to come,” he said.

The attackers fled on a downtown bound bus.

The traumatized teen said she can’t get the episode out of her mind. 

It “plays in my head over and over again, so it’s like watching it again,” said the teenager.

“I was just feeling very horrified and thinking that this was going to be the end of it, and never seeing my dad again, and my friends,” she said.

The beatdown of Paterson and his stepson brought their horror rushing back, she and her parents said.

Cops have arrested three of the suspects, but the family said there are three more.

It’s not clear if any of the attackers were the same ones who struck Paterson.

There needs to be more of a police presence in the area.

“It’s the catch and release thing in this city…they can’t just keep letting these kids get away with this,” Portnoy said.

“That’s why they’re running wild and doing what they do – because they know there’s no consequences to what they do, and it’s scary.” 

A 16-year-old girl and a boy, 15, were each charged with third degree assault; while an 18-year-old was arrested but details of his charges are sealed, police sources said.

The mother was devastated to hear of Paterson’s experience.   

“To hear that our friends and neighbors, the former governor and his son, it’s devastating for us, because we were so traumatized and so scared and replayed it for weeks, and it took so long to step away from it,” Felsher said.

“We can only have serious understanding and compassion for what they’re going through as a family.”