North Park Blocks – Photo: Daderot, via Wikimedia.
A homeless Oregon man has been released on probation after punching a transgender woman and yelling racial, homophobic, and transphobic comments at her.
Dominick Seferino Gonzales, 38, pleaded no contest to first-degree felony bias hate crime last Friday, receiving a sentence of 75 days in jail, with credit for time served.
He has been released on probation for a period of three years, and will be required to complete both a mental health evaluation and an evaluation for substance abuse disorder, and follow all treatment recommendations.
While on probation, Gonzales will not be allowed to contact the victim or enter the North Park Blocks city park in Portland, where the attack occurred.
During sentencing, Gonzales told Multnomah County Circuit Judge Angel Lopez that he regrets his actions, calling them “a mistake,” reports The Oregonian.
When he was first arrested, Gonzales claimed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been homeless for about a year, living off Social Security disability payments and using methamphetamine, heroin, alcohol, and THC, which is why Lopez recommended the mental health and substance abuse evaluations as part of Gonzales’ probation.
According to a news release from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office, Gonzales encountered the woman on Sept. 29 while they were standing in line for food and coffee being provided to homeless individuals at North Park Blocks.
The victim, a white transgender female, was wearing a dress, which apparently set Gonzales off as he began yelling at her, using racial, homophobic, and transphobic hate speech.
The victim’s friend tried to de-escalate the situation by stepping in between the two, but Gonzales made multiple attempts to go around the friend, all the while yelling at the victim. He then punched her in the face, splitting her lower lip open and causing it to bleed and swell.
Bystanders rushed to help the victim and detain Gonzales, but he jumped on a bike and fled the area. He was eventually arrested and charged with the bias crime.
“These bias crimes are extremely hurtful for the victims and our community,” Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney BJ Park, who prosecuted this case, said in a statement. “Everyone deserves to feel safe. When someone commits a crime, especially one rooted in hate, we must act to ensure accountability.”
A federal appeals court ruled earlier this week that transgender state employees, and the transgender dependents of state employees, can sue North Carolina for insurance exclusions that prohibit the state's employee health care plan from covering gender-affirming medical treatments.
Six state employees filed suit against the state in 2019, accusing the North Carolina State Health Plan of discriminating against them or their children.
Attorneys for the state had argued that the state could not be sued under a legal doctrine known as "sovereign immunity," but last year, a federal judge ruled that the state could be sued for violating nondiscrimination provisions contained in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, on the grounds that it had waived its sovereign immunity and agreed to abide by the ACA's conditions by accepting federal funds.
Police in San Diego are investigating an attack in a park that left a gay man requiring surgery to his face.
Gersson Saavedra was beaten unconscious by two strangers while walking along the pier at Cesar Chavez park around 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 12.
Saavedra suffered a fractured nose, shattered eye socket, and injuries to his spinal cord during the attack, which is being investigated as an anti-gay hate crime.
Speaking to NBC San Diego, Saavedra said he fell behind his friends when two men approached him and asked him for a lighter.
While Saavedra remembers little of what followed, his friends told him that the men started yelling homophobic slurs, including "faggot."
A New Jersey grand jury has indicted a Baltimore teenager who stands accused of nearly beating to death a man whom he believed was gay.
José Tobias Carranza Serrano, 18, also known as Kevin Lopez, was indicted last week on charges of first-degree attempted murder and bias intimidation -- a hate crime charge -- for allegedly beating and choking a 37-year-old learning disabled man in James J. Braddock North Hudson Park in North Bergen, New Jersey, on June 21.
Carranza Serrano was also indicted on charges of first-degree robbery and second-degree aggravated assault in the incident, which left the victim hospitalized and in a medically-induced coma at the time. The victim has since recovered from his injuries.
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A homeless Oregon man has been released on probation after punching a transgender woman and yelling racial, homophobic, and transphobic comments at her.
Dominick Seferino Gonzales, 38, pleaded no contest to first-degree felony bias hate crime last Friday, receiving a sentence of 75 days in jail, with credit for time served.
He has been released on probation for a period of three years, and will be required to complete both a mental health evaluation and an evaluation for substance abuse disorder, and follow all treatment recommendations.
While on probation, Gonzales will not be allowed to contact the victim or enter the North Park Blocks city park in Portland, where the attack occurred.
During sentencing, Gonzales told Multnomah County Circuit Judge Angel Lopez that he regrets his actions, calling them “a mistake,” reports The Oregonian.
When he was first arrested, Gonzales claimed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been homeless for about a year, living off Social Security disability payments and using methamphetamine, heroin, alcohol, and THC, which is why Lopez recommended the mental health and substance abuse evaluations as part of Gonzales’ probation.
According to a news release from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office, Gonzales encountered the woman on Sept. 29 while they were standing in line for food and coffee being provided to homeless individuals at North Park Blocks.
The victim, a white transgender female, was wearing a dress, which apparently set Gonzales off as he began yelling at her, using racial, homophobic, and transphobic hate speech.
The victim’s friend tried to de-escalate the situation by stepping in between the two, but Gonzales made multiple attempts to go around the friend, all the while yelling at the victim. He then punched her in the face, splitting her lower lip open and causing it to bleed and swell.
Bystanders rushed to help the victim and detain Gonzales, but he jumped on a bike and fled the area. He was eventually arrested and charged with the bias crime.
“These bias crimes are extremely hurtful for the victims and our community,” Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney BJ Park, who prosecuted this case, said in a statement. “Everyone deserves to feel safe. When someone commits a crime, especially one rooted in hate, we must act to ensure accountability.”
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