New York prosecutors have conceded two teenagers who were accused of participating in an anti-gay gang initiation were actually victims of the attack. The 17-year-olds had been charged with gang assault and assault as a hate crime in the horrific October torture session in the Bronx, but the charges have been dropped. The New York Post reports prosecutors initially thought there were four victims and up to a dozen perpetrators, but now they believe that a group of seven men, including alleged ringleaders David Rivera and Idelefonso Mendez, participated in the all-night booze and pot-fuelled horror show. In all, there were six victims who suffered various combinations of beatings, threats, burnings, robbery, assault, torture and sodomy. "Are you a faggot?" the pair shouted before they sodomized two men, according to court papers. Rivera, Mendez and their alleged cohorts have pleaded not guilty to hate crimes and assault in Bronx Supreme Court.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 3rd December 2010 - 6:56pm