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Thursday, June 14, 2007

THUG STRUCK 'GONG'

BUSH HECKLER HIT HERE By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and JAMIE SCHRAM

NY Post - June 14, 2007 -- A Chinese doctor who interrupted a news conference last year between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao was attacked by a mugger at her job in Midtown, authorities said yesterday.

Dr. Wenyi Wang - a Falun Gong member who heckled the world leaders during a White House ceremony last spring - was stalked as she entered her office building at 224 West 35th St. on June 3, police said yesterday.

The alleged stalker, Jeremiah Hardy, 21, followed Wang into the building at about 2:15 p.m., then into the elevator, without her noticing.

"I tried to make conversation with him," said Wang, who lives in Queens. "I mentioned it was cloudy outside but he didn't respond. He just looked at the ground rather then at me."

Then, when she got off at her floor, he attacked.

"I suddenly felt a huge force behind me," she recalled. "I felt my ponytail being grabbed. He used such force that he brought me down and my head was between my knees."

The thug punched and kicked her in the neck and head and wrestled Wang's bag away, she said. He then called for another elevator, jumped in and escaped.

Later that day, the manager of a nearby McDonald's down the block found Wang's bag in the bathroom, missing her driver's license, two credit cards, cellphone and camera.

Police said Hardy was busted when a friend of his tried to use the cellphone.

He was arrested on June 10 and charged with two counts of robbery, as well as criminal possession of stolen property, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Hardy, who has four other arrests for robbery, weapons possession and drugs since last November, is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.

In the April 2006 incident at the White House, Wang was charged in federal court with misdemeanor intimidating, coercing, threatening and harassing a foreign official. The charges were later dropped.

She said she was protesting the Sino-American summit to highlight the Chinese government's alleged harvesting of organs from members of the banned Falun Gong sect.

Additional reporting by Hasani Gittens

jamie.schram@nypost.com

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