News
2006-11-04
Four in St.
Martin convicted of gay bashings
St. Martin
assailants convicted
Four people were
convicted Thursday in St. Martin of an attack on
Four people were
convicted Thursday in St. Martin of an attack on
two gay men from New York that left one of them with brain
damage. Glen Cockly, Micheline Delaney, Allan Daniel,
and Michel Javois were found guilty of public violence
and grievous bodily harm in the beating last April of
Ryan Smith and Richard Jefferson, producers for CBS News,
the AP reports.
All are residents of the French side of the
Caribbean island except for Javois, who hails from the
nearby French island of Guadeloupe. The attack
happened on the Dutch side of St. Martin on April 6, when
Smith and Jefferson were assaulted by the group when
they were leaving a bar with friends, in an incident
the two men describe as a hate crime.
However, the public prosecutor in the case, Taco
Stein, disputed that description, saying that
sexuality had nothing to do with it. "Being gay was
not the issue here," he told the AP, "but meaningless
violence to annoy other people. These suspects were out
there to cause trouble."
Smith, 26, a producer for 48 Hours who
sustained a serious head injury in the attack that left him
temporarily unable to read or speak properly, strongly
disagreed. "It was because we were gay—period.
There is no question," he said. "I really hope that
anybody who knows about this case doesn't simply write it
off as...public violence. This was an attack on
someone based on who they are."
Javois was given a sentence of six years in
prison for leading the attack, although he
continues to deny being involved in it. Cockly and
Daniel were sentenced to three years each, while Delaney,
who apparently tried to stop the attack, received a
six-month sentence.
Jefferson, a senior broadcast producer for the
CBS Evening News weekend
edition, questioned the length of the sentences. "Is
six years or three years or six months the proper
penalty for permanently changing the lives of two
tourists who came to 'the Friendly Island,' " he wrote
in a statement, citing St. Martin's description of
itself. "Instead of friendliness, a pack of residents
greeted us, as the judge noted, with vicious
discrimination and contempt that almost killed us."
(The Advocate)
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