MOM DEFENDS SON IN B'KLYN BIAS CASE

BY ROBERT F. MOORE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, August 25th 2005, 6:51AM

THE MOTHER OF accused hate crime ringleader Nicholas Morse says her son has unfairly been labeled a racist for simply trying to protect his 14-year-old sister.

"He feels like he's the most hated person in New York," Colleen Morse said of her 18-year-old son. "My son's life is ruined now."

Police, prosecutors and Alex Moore, the victim of the Aug. 7 attack, said the beating in Flatlands, Brooklyn, fit all the elements of a hate crime.

"If it wasn't a hate crime, then why did they beat me with a pipe and call me a n----?" said Moore, 29, adding that he'd never seen Morse before the attack.

Morse, who was initially in protective custody after his Aug. 16 arrest, has been charged with second-degree assault and menacing, both as hate crimes. He's been ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Morse, whose father is of mixed Jamaican and Chinese descent, denied any role in the assault, saying he got there after the beating.

Anthony David, 17, Robert Lombardi, 18, and Stephen Cucarese, 18, also were charged.

Police said Morse told James Smith, an older teen who dated Morse's sister, to leave the girl alone. Smith was with Moore before the beating, but the gang of as many as 10 whites caught up with Moore.

"This has nothing to do with race," said Morse's attorney, Scott Cerbin. "He would have been opposed to any 19-year-old trying to date his 14-year-old sister."

rmoore@nydailynews.com