Three Men Arrested in Hate-Crime Attack on Gays in West Hollywood

Three men were arrested Tuesday night in connection with one of a series of hate crime attacks on gay men in West Hollywood, and authorities were trying to determine if they are linked to the others.

All three had been arrested the night of the first attack on Sept. 1 on suspicion of robbery and car theft, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Lynda Castro said. Although deputies then suspected that they might be linked to the attack, there wasn’t enough evidence to hold them for that crime, she said. A tip, however, led to their rearrests Tuesday.

Last month, four men in West Hollywood were attacked in three separate assaults, all involving a baseball bat, a section of pipe or both. The attacks inspired fear in the community, where nearly a third of residents are gay.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for the entire month of September,” Castro said at a news conference outside the West Hollywood sheriff’s station. “This has been a month from hell. This is a great night for West Hollywood.”

Deputies did not release the suspects’ names nor say where they were arrested. All were booked at the West Hollywood station on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Two assaults occurred on Sept. 1 on Cynthia Street, a few blocks off Santa Monica Boulevard. The victims were 34-year-old actor Treve Broudy, who was nearly killed, and a friend, Edward Lett. That attack took place just after Broudy and his friend had embraced.

The suspects were booked Tuesday on suspicion of that attack.

A few hours after the attack on Broudy, a 35-year-old West Hollywood resident whose name has not been released was attacked near Cynthia Street and Hilldale Avenue by two men armed with clubs.

On Sept. 23, a 55-year-old gay man was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after being beaten about 3:15 a.m. by two people who used similar weapons--a baseball bat or section of pipe--fit similar physical descriptions to the earlier attackers, and drove a late 1980s, four-door Nissan Sentra.

The two assailants yelled anti-gay epithets at the victim as they hit him repeatedly in the face, head and body, sheriff’s deputies said.

In that case, a passing cabdriver intervened, chasing the assailants until they ran out of sight, authorities said. The taxi driver took the victim home.

Determined to capture the attackers, the West Hollywood sheriff’s station increased late-night patrols from 12 to 30 deputies around the Sunset Strip.

As anger and fear crept through the community once known as a comfortable place to be gay, residents took to the street in rallies and candlelight vigils. Sketches of the assailants were distributed in bars and businesses.

The arrests Tuesday night “are very important to us, not only in the police world, but especially in the community,” Castro said. “This community was living in fear since Sept. 1.”

One of the suspects has been in custody since Sept. 1 on the auto-theft charge. Tuesday’s tip led to the other two. Further investigation then led deputies to the man already in jail.

All three were first arrested after Deputy Robert Gillis pulled over a red Toyota driving without its lights on a cul-de-sac. Gillis had not heard at that point about the attack on Broudy, he said Tuesday. He found narcotics in the car, he said.

$91,000 Reward

Although he later discovered similarities between the Toyota’s license plate and the partial license plate number reported in the attack, there still was not enough evidence to link them, authorities said.

In recent weeks, the reward total for the hate crimes had been raised to $91,000, Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) said.

Sheriff’s Det. John Kniest said Tuesday that he didn’t think the reward prompted the tip.

“I don’t think it was so much the reward, but it was a citizen who wanted to do the right thing,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Martin said, “We’re pretty ecstatic. We think that ultimately, the tip was given by somebody who put themselves in the place of Treve Broudy’s parents.”

A friend of Broudy’s, Dave Walsh of West Hollywood, said he was in the middle of dinner when he heard that an announcement of arrest was imminent, “and I just dropped everything” to go to the sheriff’s station. There, he and other friends cheered and hugged city officials and investigators.

“We’re not going to be pushed into a corner because of hate,” he said. “We love Treve. It’s all about Treve, [but] it is also about how it affects all of us. It affects everybody in terms of ‘that could be me.’ ”

Another friend of seven years, Craig DeSilva, said Broudy “had a real kaleidoscope of emotions going on” Tuesday night. “I think that he was grateful.”

Broudy, he said, is “doing much better, talking again, but still has memory problems.”