Three women accused of beating up a gay man claim they cannot be charged with a hate crime because they are all lesbians.
Sisters Erika Stroud, 21, Felicia Stroud, 18, and Lydia Sanford, 20, are charged with viciously beating the man and breaking his nose after he bumped into them at a train station in Boston.
The women all face hate crime charges of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence.
Sisters Erika Stroud, 21, left, and Felicia Stroud, 18, right, both claim they should not have been charged with a hate crime because they are lesbians.
But Carolyn Euell, 38, mother of two of the Strouds told the Boston Herald that the alleged attack ‘can’t be hateful’ because both her daughters are lesbians.
Prosecutors said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the charge by the use of hateful language.
Prosecutor Lindsey Weinstein said the two sisters and Sanford, who is one of their domestic partners, repeatedly punched and kicked the man on Sunday at the Forest Hills T station in Jamaica Plain, reports the Herald.
She said the victim told the police he believed the attack was ‘motivated as a crime because of his sexual orientation’ since the three women ‘called him insulting homophobic slurs’.
But attorney Helene Tomlinson, who represented Sanford, told the judge her client is ‘openly identified as a lesbian … so any homophobic (conduct) is unwarranted.’
She said the alleged victim was the aggressor and used racial slurs: ‘He provoked them.’ reports the Herald.
Felicia Stroud’s attorney, C. Harold Krasnow, said, ‘They don’t know what his sexual orientation is, just like he doesn’t know what theirs is.’
But Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, told the Herald that the prosecutors will have no problem proving the women committed a hate crime, even if they are lesbians.
‘The defendants’ particular orientation or alleged orientations have no bearing on our ability to prosecute for allegedly targeting a person who they believe to be different from them,’ he said.
