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.”
Two men have been charged with vandalizing a rainbow-colored bench in Miami Beach with graffiti featuring a swastika and references to Adolf Hitler.
Surveillance video from Ocean Drive on May 18 captured two men sitting on the rainbow bench before one of them appeared to scribble graffiti onto the bench's yellow section.
Upon closer inspection, the graffiti included a swastika and the phrase "Adolf was here" written in marker.
Before sitting down, surveillance cameras captured four men approaching the rainbow bench and gathering around it. One of the men appeared to pull an object from his fanny pack and hand it to another man.
San Francisco police are investigating after a suspect vandalized a floral design shop with homophobic graffiti before fleeing in an SUV bearing a pro-Charlie Kirk message on the back windshield.
Jeff Dumlao, co-owner of the floral design studio Chartreuse by Roje in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, said he and his partner, Roberto Cancel, had just closed for the day on May 16 when they were alerted to the graffiti.
"We were going to support one of our friends at an art show down the street, and on the way, we get a text from one of our clients saying, 'I know you just closed, but you might want to come back because there's some unpleasant graffiti on the wall outside your store and some sort of disturbance happening,'" Dumlao told SFist.
A 26-year-old Bronx man will finally stand trial for an alleged anti-gay assault committed more than two years ago, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.
Tavaughn Thompson was indicted on May 21 on two counts of third-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of second-degree aggravated harassment. He was previously arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court in February, days after his January 31 arrest.
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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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