A former
University of Wisconsin student is seeking monetary damages
from two men he says attacked him in a hate crime last
year.
Brett Timmerman,
who was a student at UW's Platteville campus, filed the
lawsuit Thursday against Oden Waite and Enove Urias, who he
says slapped and spit on him as he tried to enter a
local restaurant.
"Mr. Timmerman
was singled out and beaten by his attackers because he
is gay," James P. Madigan, staff attorney in Lambda Legal's
Chicago office, said in a statement. "He suffered
physical as well as emotional injury and has
shouldered significant expense in the aftermath of the
attack."
Before walking
into the restaurant, Timmerman says, he was called a
"faggot" by Waite and Urias. The pair then proceeded to
physically abuse Timmerman, he says, including striking him
in the head. A police officer eventually broke up the
fight, arresting Waite.
Waite said in
court documents that the criminal charge against him was
dropped but that he had to pay a Grant County ordinance
ticket. Urias was cited for misdemeanor battery,
entered a no-contest plea, and was convicted and
fined, UW's Exponent newspaper reported.
Lambda Legal's
argument invokes the Wisconsin hate-crime law, which
allows civil suits after someone engages in conduct that
would trigger a hate-crime penalty even if the person
was not charged with or convicted of a crime.
"Every day that I
went out in Platteville outside of the university, I
was harassed--I couldn't even go to the bathroom alone
out of fear of being attacked again. I was constantly
looking over my shoulder," Timmerman said in a
statement. "I am filing this lawsuit because I want to
make sure that no one else has to go through what I went
through." (The Advocate)