Family calls El Verano assault on gay man a hate crime

April 4, 2013, 1:38AM

04/04/2013

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A gay, 18-year-old man and his family contend the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office is downplaying what they call a hate crime committed in Sonoma Valley.

As sheriff's deputies rolled up to an altercation at El Verano Elementary School shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, several people fled. Among the handful who stayed, some were in tears and bore signs of having been in a fight.

The deputies found that the teens seemed to have been drinking and apparently were set upon by gang members known to hang out in that area.

One of the beaten teens and his mother say the community needs to know that what happened at the school was far more serious and disturbing.

The familysays the core of the violence was a hate crime against the male high school senior, who said he was beaten and robbed by strangers who called him "faggot," "gay boy" and other slurs.

"They obviously attacked me because I'm gay," said the young man, who asked not be to identified because he fears retaliation.

Bret Sackett, the Sonoma County sheriff's lieutenant who acts as Sonoma's police chief, said the initial impression of the investigation is that Kristin Land's son and his friends were assaulted by gang members.

"It just didn't appear to be motivated by his sexual orientation, so it didn't have the appearance of a hate crime," he said.

He said he arrived alone at the school to meet his friends and he was taunted by seven people he didn't