W. Hollywood Attack Ruled No Hate Crime

Prosecutors announced Thursday that no hate-crime charges will be filed against three suspects accused of attacking two gay men last month with a baseball bat, angering West Hollywood politicians, gay rights activists and sheriff’s deputies.

There is no evidence that the early-morning Sept. 2 assault on actor Treve Broudy and his friend, Edward Ulett, was a hate crime because no anti-gay epithets were used, said the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

There was another attack on Sept. 22, when two people beat a 55-year-old gay man as they yelled anti-gay epithets. The victim in that case has not been able to identify the assailants and no charges have been filed, district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. The suspects’ possible involvement in the latest attack is still under investigation, Deputy Sheriff Don Mueller said.

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Thursday that it was not unreasonable to think that hate crimes had occurred, but that after a thorough review, his office determined that the motive of the recent attacks in West Hollywood was robbery. But he said his office is committed to prosecuting hate crimes and could add more charges if additional evidence develops.

“One hate crime in Los Angeles County is one too many, whether it involves race, religion or sexual orientation,” he said in a statement.

West Hollywood politicians and activists gathered at the Beverly Hills courthouse Thursday to protest. West Hollywood City Councilman Jeffrey Prang called the decision absurd. Mayor Pro Tem Steve Martin said the city will ask the state attorney general’s office to step in and prosecute the case as a hate crime.

“We are just a little bit incredulous,” Martin said. “We are expressing today our consternation that the district attorney is taking this incredibly conservative stand. Here we are dealing with a case that seems to be a hate crime on its face.”

If convicted of the current charges against them, the suspects could face between six and 19 years in prison. If convicted of separate hate-crime allegations, two years could be added to their sentences.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recommended to prosecutors that they file the case as a hate crime, Mueller said.

“Our entire community in West Hollywood, including the Sheriff’s Department, is extremely disappointed,” Mueller said. “Based on our interview with the suspects and the information that they admitted to, we believe that there is evidence to go forward with a hate-crime charge.”

He said investigators will continue to search for more evidence, vowing, “We are not backing off.”

Gibbons said the evidence that Mueller cited, statements by a suspect, cannot be used in court. Statements indicate that the suspects wanted to “rob rich white people.” Two of the men had previously been convicted of robberies, the district attorney’s office said.

“The suspects were on their way to rob people,” Gibbons said. “We don’t have any proof they singled out Mr. Broudy or his companion because they were gay. And therefore it would be wrong to charge something we can’t prove.”

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, said it would be unusual for his office to take the case. He added that the office has yet to receive a formal complaint.

“The attorney general does not routinely substitute his judgment for the prosecutorial decision by the duly elected district attorney,” Barankin said.

The district attorney’s office charged Larry Walker, 29, Vincent Dotson, 18, and Torwin Sessions, 19, each with one count of attempted robbery, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. The three men, who were arrested Tuesday night in connection with the attack, pleaded not guilty in Superior Court Thursday.

West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran, an attorney, said he is frustrated by the decision because he believes the case was clearly a crime against gays. He pointed out that the assault occurred within 100 yards of gay nightclubs and that the suspects used baseball bats and pipes.

“Those are not instruments that are used for an attempted robbery,” he said.

West Hollywood City Manager Paul Arevalo said he spoke to Cooley on the phone Thursday and told him he was disappointed with the decision. Arevalo said he told Cooley that his prosecutors “were not acting as they should in this case.”

Chanting “Recall Cooley” and carrying signs that asked, “How Can a Beating Not be Hate?” about 300 people gathered at Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards Thursday night to protest the decision and hear officials demand that Cooley reconsider.

Among them was Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), who called the filing “one of the biggest prosecutorial mistakes I can remember.”

“The district attorney said he won’t respond to political pressure,” Koretz said. “But political pressure must be kept on him anyway. Hate-crime charges must not be ruled out at this point.”

Standing on the back of a pick-up truck and speaking with a bullhorn, Deputy Lynda Castro received loud applause when she delivered a message from Sheriff Lee Baca:

“After conferring with the district attorney, I’m requesting the charges be amended--contingent upon further investigation--to allow the charges to come forward with the hate-crime enhancement.”

Roger Coggen, director of legal services at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles, said he was encouraged by Baca’s involvement.

“Usually, we’re the ones pleading with law enforcement to categorize certain attacks as hate crimes,” he said. “When you have the Sheriff’s Department advocating it, you know there’s more to the case.”

The attack on Broudy and Ulett was the first in a series of three assaults on men that inspired fear in West Hollywood, where nearly one-third of the residents are gay. The victims had just embraced on Cynthia Street when they were attacked with a baseball bat, authorities said.

That same morning, Christopher Roehm was attacked nearby, authorities said. According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday, the suspects went to West Hollywood in a stolen car to commit robberies.

The complaint alleges that Sessions got out of the car and hit Broudy with the baseball bat. He is charged with inflicting great bodily injury. Broudy is still hospitalized and may have suffered brain damage in the attack, authorities said.

Sessions is being held in County Jail on $215,000 bail. He could face a 19-year prison term. Walker is on $185,000 bail and could receive 16 years in prison. Both Sessions and Walker have prior robbery convictions, prosecutors said. Dotson is being held on $135,000 bail; he could be sentenced to six years.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 4.

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Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this report.