Man is sentenced in antigay attack

[meegbear]

A Framingham pizza delivery man pleaded guilty yesterday to nine criminal charges, including four civil rights violations, for beating and yelling homophobic slurs at four people in the South End last August, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office.

Fabio Brandao, 29, admitted to assaulting three men and one woman, all between the ages of 23 and 27 at the time, as they walked on Columbus Avenue after leaving a nightclub early on Aug. 24, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office said.

Boston Police and emergency medical technicians arrived on the scene shortly before 3 a.m. after one of the victims called 911.

Victims told police that four men in a white Honda drove up to them yelling homophobic slurs before exiting the car and attacking them, according to Conley.

A license plate number recorded by one of the victims and a recovered cellphone led police to Brandao, Conley said. The three other assailants remain at large.

Before pleading guilty yesterday, Brandao had been scheduled to appear for trial at Boston Municipal Court.

Judge Thomas C. Horgan ordered Brandao to pay the victims a total of $4,250 for medical bills and related expenses by Nov. 25. He also said Brandao must stay away from the victims and the South End, and must complete an anger management program.

Prior to the sentencing, the victims addressed the court to explain how the attack affected their lives.

One man who required stitches to his face said the physical scars remind him of the attack every day. He also said he had to move from the city.

Brandao's lawyer, Francis Doran, had no comment.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/28/man_is_sentenced_in_antigay_attack/

At only $1,062.50 a person, what a deal! WHAT THE FUCK!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I'm surprised there was no prison time

especially since he didn't give up the names of the other attackers. This is the sort of sentence I'd expect if he HAD turned in the other three and it was shown he didn't have a major part in the attack.

[Deep13]

2. That's restitution. It doesn't say what his sentence was.

Restitution is to reimburse the victims for out-of-pocket losses. It is not a punishment.

[meegbear]

3. From the article ...

...Brandao must stay away from the victims and the South End, and must complete an anger management program.

That's it. No jail time. Nothing.

[Deep13]

4. That's a typical restraining order, not a sentence.

The article does not say one way or the other what the sentence is and it is pretty unlikely that there is none at all. It may be a suspended sentence conditioned on behaving himself. It may be time served while waiting for trial. It may be six months in jail. The article just does not say.

[Duncan Grant]

5. Fabio can beat the fuck out of me and it'll only cost him $1,000 (give or take)?

How long will it be before they create a "season" and start selling licenses?

:wtf:

[donco6]

8. Poaching a deer nets you $2,000 fine.

I guess that tells you where we fit.

[tudor586]

6. The sentence is stirring national outrage, and no where more than in Boston

This pattern of gaybashers who injure their victims getting off is all too familiar in Massachusetts, despite our progressive political policies. The judge ignored not one but two hate crimes statutes that demanded penalty enhancement. A hew and cry is already being raised.

The Anti-Violence Project of Mass. and Join the Impact MA are co-sponsoring a protest rally near the Boston Municipal Court, corner of New Chardon and Merrimac Streets in downtown Boston/North End. It is tentatively scheduled for Thurs 18 June at 4 PM.

[ThomCat]

7. Can an ethics complaint be filed against the judge for favoring

gaybashers with light sentences and ignoring hate crime statutes? :(

If this is a pattern, and if the law was clear that the MINIMUM penalty should have been much more severe then this judge should have his ass served to him on a plate.

His bigotry should not compromise our justice. :grr: