Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories

Gay Torture in New York: Gang of Nine Accused

1 year ago
  0 Comments Say Something  »
Text Size
NEW YORK – Nine men calling themselves the Latin King Goonies stand accused of sodomizing, burning and whipping three gay men in a house in the Bronx. Seven suspects have been arrested and detained but two were still being sought.
The charges included abduction, unlawful imprisonment and sodomy, all hate crimes, the New York Times reported Saturday.
The attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old, abducted two teenage boys last Sunday and beat them for hours, the police said, until the boys -- one of whom was sodomized with a plunger -- admitted having sex with men. Another victim, a 30-year-old man, showed up at the house later, for what he was told would be a party. When he walked in, he was tied up, sodomized and burned. The teenagers and the 30-year-old were attacked for being gay, the police said.
The assaults came in the wake of a series of recent episodes of bullying, harassment and psychic and physical brutality against young gay men across the nation. A Rutgers University freshman jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge in September after his roommate secretly videotaped him having a sexual encounter with another man in his room and streamed the video over the Internet.
The case of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers was just one of several suicides in recent weeks by gay teenagers who had been brutalized by classmates, in person or online. The list includes Billy Lucas, 15, of Greensburg, Ind., who hanged himself; Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, who shot himself; and Seth Walsh, 13, who hanged himself from a tree in his home's backyard in Tehachapi, Calif.
New York City Council Speaker Christine QuinnTheir suicides and the intolerance and hatred that led to their deaths have been part of a national conversation in the past few weeks, prompting pleas for religious organizations for a halt to the spewing anti-gay sentiments and calls for the enactment of anti-bullying measures and the enforcement of hate crime laws.
Reaching out to the nation's young gays, the gay columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" online project which has drawn thousands of adults to speak directly on You Tube about troubled childhoods, and the need for courage and resilience with the promise that life gets better for gays as they grow older.
In New York City, the police didn't get a break in the case until late Wednesday, when an onlooker outside the brick house where the attacks took place gave an officer a telling note with a phone number, the Times said. The house, on Osborne Place in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, had been vacant and cleaned up with bleach by the attackers hoping to erase any signs of the bloody assaults. When a detective called the number on the note, he was given the name of the man who police believe was the leader of the group of suspects. By Wednesday night all three victims, who initially had been hesitant to talk fully, had given the police accounts of the attacks.
The suspects were identified as Ildefonzo Mendes, 33; David Rivera, 21; Nelso Falu, 18; Steven Carballo, 17; Dennis Peitars, 17; Bryan Almonte, 17; and Brian Cepeda, 16.
New York's City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, the city's highest ranking openly gay official, called the attacks among the worst hate crimes she knew of. "It makes you sick."
Filed Under: Crime, Gay Rights

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

14 Comments

Filter by:
tcjunk

my brother is dead he was 34 and openly gay. he died of aids. my other brother is openly gay and has a partner of around 8 years. happy he is. me im strait and totaly happy. i do not agre with any one who says they r gay. it is against gods law. and it is not up to me or any other to make judjment. only god. we all r sinners big sins or small it dont matter. with that said to me it is totaly agains gods rulls and if u dont believe in god then in some way or another then what can i say. the children r the ones who r gona get hurt by the mixed mesage out there. the country was founded on god and rulles. what happen. free speach that sucks. nothing is free every thing comes with a price. lets not make our children pay the price for our sins. to me it is an aabonition. but god forgives all who ask for forgivness. if u dont believe in god well then in my eyes u r lost. lets send the right mesage to the young and not pass on the sins of of our brothers and fathers and sisters and mothers as no one is exemt. we all need to b respected. i dont wat my children or thers to grow up confused. some of us r stronger, the week r the ones who will need direction. to me it is a choice. my brothers in my eyes r totaly rong but i still love them. dont forget we all bleed red. some how the government has screwed it all up so it is up to each of us to b clear on right and wrong.

October 11 2010 at 10:38 AM Report abuse -5 rate up rate down Reply
Steve

Why was a thirty year old man going to a party with teenage boys in the first place? There does seem to be a bit of perversion with this life style, if it was a straight man going to party with teenage girls that would have been a major issue in this story. Nobody has the right to torture, and at the same time no thriry year old man has the right to sodomize young boys. Half of these boys are not even gay, some older man molests them then convinces them they are gay the the kid kills themself out of guilt. There is really some weirdos out there.

October 11 2010 at 9:19 AM Report abuse -12 rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to Steve's comment
tram777

THE PEOPLE WHO BEAT THE YOUNG MAN AND THE TEEN AGERS, SHOULD GO TO JAIL, THEY SHOULD BE GIVER REAL JAIL TIME, LIKE 50 YEARS THIS HARRASMENT OF ANY PERSON SHOULD BE STOPPED THE LAW IS TO LEANENT THROW THE BOOK AT THEM AND PEOPLE WILL THINK BEFORE HARASSING ANY ONE, I HAVE BEEN INTIMATED I KNOW FIRST HAND WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE TREATED LIKE THAT. IF THE POLICE WILL INFORCE THE LAW THE HARASSMENT WILL STOP NOW, TRAM

October 09 2010 at 8:50 PM Report abuse +15 rate up rate down Reply
iiioowooiii

This is sickening. When you have prominent right wingers talking about gays being unfit to teach, unfit for the military, etc...a young person hears the rhetoric that is brought around by the Republicans in election years and thinks they are justified in this type of action. Until they stop ginning up votes with hate this will continue and get worse. I will continue to say that NO ONE should be bullied. PERIOD. This isn't a gay agenda thing. It's a don't bully ANYONE thing.

October 09 2010 at 6:19 PM Report abuse +20 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to iiioowooiii's comment
pttypinkley

Vicky..."Where in the article did it say the attackers were republicans?" umm...DeMint said it...he's and R!!!

October 09 2010 at 7:56 PM Report abuse +16 rate up rate down Reply

Follow Politics Daily

  • Comics
robert-and-donna-trussell
CHAOS THEORY
Featuring political comics by Robert and Donna TrussellMore>>
  • Woman UP Video
politics daily videos
Weekly Videos
Woman Up, Politics Daily's Online Sunday ShowMore»
politics daily videos
TV Appearances
Showcasing appearances by Politics Daily staff and contributors.More>>