2006 Greenwich Village assault case

Last updated

On August 18, 2006, Dwayne Buckle, an African-American independent filmmaker, and a group of seven young black lesbian friends from Newark, New Jersey, got into a physical conflict outside of the IFC Center movie theater in Greenwich Village, in Manhattan, New York City. During the altercation, Buckle was cut; he required five days of hospitalization. The women claimed that they were acting in self-defense, [1] while Buckle claims the women initiated the attack motivated to commit "a hate crime against a straight man". [2]

Contents

The case sparked sensational media attention. Four members of the group of seven women were subsequently tried and convicted. Three of the convictions were overturned on appeal; of those three, two were ordered new trials, and both were convicted again. [3] The one whose case was dismissed had spent two years in prison.

Incident

Buckle says he was trying to sell some of his DVDs on the street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, and he approached one of the women in the group, whom he "admired". Buckle said she smiled back, but another woman in the group responded by mocking his jeans and sneakers as "cheap". Buckle says he responded to the insult in kind and an argument ensued, whereupon one woman slapped him and another spat on him. Buckle says he spat back, then he was attacked by the group, clawed and ultimately severely cut on the abdomen. [4]

Patreese Johnson testified that Buckle initiated the altercation by pointing to her crotch and demanding, "Let me get some of that!" [1] as her group walked past him. She claimed she replied, "No thank you, I'm not interested in that", whereupon Buckle began following them, making more crude comments and gestures. After the women proclaimed themselves lesbians, Buckle allegedly threw a cigarette at them and became even more insulting, calling the group "fucking dykes", [5] and yelled, "I'll fuck you straight, sweetheart". [6] The group stopped and confronted him, and more harsh words were exchanged. Buckle then began shoving the women, ultimately tackling and choking Renata Hill. Johnson, afraid for Hill's life, cut Buckle using a steak knife. [1] [7]

Two or three male bystanders, whose identities were never ascertained, intervened in the fight. The women claimed they were "Good Samaritans" acting of their own volition to assist them against their attacker. Buckle claimed the women recruited the men to attack him. [7] One defense attorney advanced the women's testimony that one of the intervenors, not Johnson, was the individual who actually cut Buckle. [8]

Trial

Buckle, a New York resident, testified that he could not remember which of the women he thought was pretty. He testified that before the attack he told one woman she looked like an elephant, and another that she looked like a man. He also testified that his only physical response to the attack was to put his hands in front of his face. The defense presented surveillance footage of Buckle on top of a woman with his hands on her throat. At trial, a police officer who recovered Johnson's knife at the scene testified that he saw no blood on it. No forensic testing was done on the knife. Law enforcement never attempted to find the men who intervened in the melee. The defense claimed the video footage showed Buckle initiating the altercation.

The prosecutor's case was based on video that showed Johnson calmly stepping out of the fray, removing her knife from her bag, then stepping back into the group attack. Johnson alone was charged with attempted murder.

The trial itself was lengthy, lasting nearly a year. The all-white jury of 10 women and two men deliberated for only five hours, finding all four women, New Jersey residents, guilty of second-degree gang assault. Johnson was found not guilty of attempted murder. New York Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin pronounced sentences ranging from 3½ to 11 years. The judge cited as "damning" evidence video surveillance depicting Venice Brown chasing Buckle down. [2] At the conclusion, Buckle told the New York Daily News : "I'm stabbed and I have a scar that will be with me for the rest of my life...They have their jail sentences, but they'll be out soon. This is what I get for being a nice guy." [5]

Three of the seven women pleaded guilty to attempted assault, and were sentenced to six months. The other four went to trial and were convicted. Two of these women's convictions were subsequently overturned: Terrain Dandridge's appeal succeeded on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction; Renata Hill's conviction was reversed on the basis that the trial judge gave the jury faulty instructions. As of June 2008, Patreese Johnson and Venice Brown's convictions were still pending appeal. [9] As of sometime after June 2008, the courts have ruled and Venice Brown can have a new trial like Renata Hill (both Hill and Brown were subsequently convicted) and Johnson's conviction was upheld for her attempting murder. [3] As of 2018, they should no longer be serving time in prison for this incident.

Media coverage

Much of the media coverage was sensational, referring to the incident as the "attack of the killer lesbians", and to the group as a "seething sapphic septet". [10] The case was also cited in a Village Voice article about rap culture and young black lesbians. [11]

The O'Reilly Factor ran a segment entitled "Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem". The story described the incident from a point of view sympathetic to Buckle, and described a "national underground network... that's actually recruiting kids as young as 10 years old" and engaging in homosexual recruitment. The story described these gangs as groups that "just want to hurt people". [12]

The Southern Poverty Law Center criticized O'Reilly's story as inaccurate, and criticized the segment's commentator, Rod Wheeler, as unqualified. [13] The SPLC's Hatewatch website sarcastically awarded O'Reilly their "Most Gullible Broadcaster Award". [14]

The Gay City News criticized the sensationalistic coverage, pointing to elements the mainstream press ignored, such as allegations that Buckle tore a chunk of hair from one woman's scalp. [7]

A New York-based LGBT youth advocacy group, FIERCE, claimed the women's prosecution was motivated by attempts to "gentrify" the West Village area, noting the judge's comments about "how New York welcomes tourists". FIERCE also complained that "every possible racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT and anti-youth tactic" was used by the prosecution against the women. [15]

Out In The Night, a documentary film by Blair Dorosh-Walther, was released in June 2014. [16] The documentary follows the four women who did not plead guilty, telling the story for the first time from their points of view. [17] AlterNet named Out in the Night one of the top 12 best and most powerful documentaries of 2014, saying that that film "might be considered the ethical journalism the media itself failed to produce around the 2006 case of the 'New Jersey Four.'" [18] The film highlighted the injustices done to the four defendants. One major flaw during the trial was that Buckle's injuries were perceived to be more severe than they actually were. At the hospital, Buckle received a surgery to fix his hernia. Jurors were tricked into believing the large scar from the surgery was actually the stab wound he received during the altercation.

See also

Related Research Articles

Murder, Inc. was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate – a closely connected criminal organization that included and was started by the Irish Mob, and included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organizations in New York City and elsewhere. Murder, Inc. was composed of Irish, Jewish, and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class Irish, Jewish, and Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Park jogger case</span> 1989 crime in New York City

The Central Park jogger case was a criminal case concerning the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a woman who was running in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989. Crime in New York City was peaking in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged. On the night Meili was attacked, dozens of teenagers had entered the park, and there were reports of muggings and physical assaults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Diane Whipple</span> American lacrosse player and coach (1968–2001)

Diane Alexis Whipple was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26, 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios. Paul Schneider, the dogs' owner, is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is serving three life sentences in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, a husband and wife who lived in the same apartment building as Whipple. After the fatal attack, the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Noel, who was not present during the attack, was convicted of manslaughter. Knoller, who was present, was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction, an unusual result for an unintended dog attack, was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottsboro Boys</span> Racism-based miscarriage of justice

The Scottsboro Boys were nine black, male teenagers accused of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a legal injustice in the United States legal system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abner Louima</span> Haitian-American police brutality victim (born 1966)

Abner Louima is a Haitian American man who, in 1997, was physically attacked, brutalized, and raped by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub. His injuries were so severe that he required three major surgeries.

The Kern County child abuse cases started the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s in Kern County, California. The cases involved allegations of satanic ritual abuse by a sex ring against as many as 60 children who testified they had been abused. At least 36 people were convicted and most of them spent years in prison. Thirty-four convictions were overturned on appeal. The district attorney responsible for the convictions was Ed Jagels, who was sued by at least one of those whose conviction was overturned, and who remained in office until 2009. Two of the convicted individuals were unable to prove their innocence because they died in prison.

The M25 Three were Raphael Rowe, Michael George Davis, and Randolph Egbert Johnson, who were jailed for life at the Old Bailey in March 1990 after being wrongfully convicted of murder and burglary. The name was taken from the location of the crimes, which were committed around the M25, London's orbital motorway, during the early hours of 16 December 1988. The original trial took place between January and February 1990, resulting in all three being convicted of the murder of Peter Hurburgh, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Timothy Napier and several robberies. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and given substantial sentences for the other offences. The convictions were overturned in July 2000. All three men have consistently maintained their innocence.

Romona Moore was a 21-year-old Hunter College honors student who disappeared April 24, 2003, in Brooklyn, New York. Two months later, her body was discovered outside an abandoned house which an anonymous caller had directed her mother to. Two male suspects were arrested; they were convicted in 2006 of having kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered Moore. The young immigrant from Guyana had been living at home with her parents and relatives before she was kidnapped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores</span> Father and daughter murdered in Arivaca, Arizona, U.S.

On May 30, 2009, 29-year-old Raul Flores Jr. and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia Ylianna Flores, were murdered during a home invasion in Arivaca, Arizona. The perpetrators were Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Gaxiola, all members of Forde's vigilante nativist group, Minutemen American Defense (MAD). Gina Gonzalez, the victims' wife and mother, was wounded but survived the attack after exchanging gunfire with the intruders, wounding Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Ben Kinsella</span> 2008 murder in London, England

Ben Michael Kinsella was a 16-year-old student at Holloway School who was stabbed to death in an attack by three men in June 2008 in Islington. The significant media attention around his murder led to a series of anti-knife crime demonstrations, a raised profile for the government's anti-knife crime maxim "Operation Blunt 2" and a review of UK knife crime sentencing laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Richmond High School gang rape</span> In California, U.S.

On October 24, 2009, in Richmond, a city on the northeast side of the San Francisco Bay in California, U.S., a female student of Richmond High School was gang raped repeatedly by a group of young males in a courtyard on the school campus while a homecoming dance was being held in the gymnasium. Seven men faced charges related to the rape, and one was released after a preliminary hearing. Of the six remaining defendants, four eventually pleaded guilty and two were convicted at trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United States</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (LGBTQ), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. The people who are the targets of such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and they are also believed to contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted for violence. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than it is among couples of the opposite sex, but male same-sex violence is less common.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.

Laurie Show was a 16-year-old sophomore at Conestoga Valley High School who was stalked by her classmates and murdered on December 20, 1991, in the United States. Her body was discovered by her mother, Hazel Show, in their Lancaster, Pennsylvania home, with her throat slit. Her classmates Lisa Michelle Lambert, Tabitha Buck, and Lawrence "Butch" Yunkin were subsequently charged with her murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hollywood Stuntz gang assault</span> Road incident in New York City, United States

On September 29, 2013, motorist Alexian Lien was assaulted while driving on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City. Lien had gotten into an altercation earlier in the day with motorcyclists who were participating in a rally called Hollywood's Block Party. One of the bikers pulled in front of Lien and slowed dramatically. Lien said that he struck the bike from behind, stopped his vehicle, and was quickly surrounded by bikers, who began attacking his SUV. He testified that he feared for his life. Lien accelerated, driving his SUV over Edwin Mieses, paralyzing him, and also running over several motorcycles. Lien then fled the scene in his SUV. A chase ensued, which ended in Lien being pulled from his vehicle and beaten. The media later reported that the involved bikers were members of a loose association of high-performance motorcycle enthusiasts known as "Hollywood Stuntz" who had previously been observed and filmed engaging in reckless driving and threatening motorists.

Daniel Ken Holtzclaw is a convicted rapist. He was convicted in December 2015 of multiple counts of rape, sexual battery, and other sex offenses while on duty as an Oklahoma City Police Officer.

The Keighley child sex abuse ring was a group of twelve men who committed serious sexual offences against two under-aged girls in the English town of Keighley and city of Bradford, West Yorkshire. In December 2015, they were found guilty of rape and other forms of sexual abuse by a unanimous jury verdict at Bradford Crown Court. They were sentenced in February 2016 to a total of 130 years in jail. The main victim, who had been targeted by ten of the men, was aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the attacks between 2011 and 2012.

On 17 September 2019, Kevin Lunney, chief operating officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), was abducted from his home near Derrylin in the south of County Fermanagh, beaten, and left near Drumcoghill in County Cavan.

The 2019 Cyprus rape allegation case is a high-profile case of a reported gang rape in Cyprus. In July 2019, a 19-year old British woman on holiday in Ayia Napa reported she had been gang raped by twelve Israeli tourists. The Israeli men were subsequently arrested and investigated over the allegation by the Cyprus Police, but they were released without charge and the woman was charged for making a false allegation. In January 2020, the woman was convicted of "public mischief" in a Cypriot court and received a suspended sentence. Her conviction was overturned in 2022 by the Cypriot Supreme Court on the grounds that she had not received a fair trial. The woman has maintained that she was pressured to retract her statement, something contested by Cypriot authorities. The case triggered intense international scrutiny.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hartocollis, Anemona (April 14, 2007). "Woman in Gang Assault Trial Says Man Started the Fight". The New York Times . Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Associated Press (June 15, 2007). "Four women sentenced over attack on man". NBC News. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "People v Brown". New York State Courts. February 11, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  4. ↑ Buckley, Cara; Kate Hammer (August 19, 2006). "Man Is Stabbed in Attack After Admiring a Stranger". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  5. 1 2 Martinez, Jose (April 19, 2007). "Lesbian wolf pack guilty". New York Daily News . Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  6. ↑ Ross, Barbara; Tracy Connor (April 12, 2007). "The case of the lesbian beatdown". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 Day, Susie (June 28, 2007). "Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court, Media Wolfpack". Gay City News. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ Hartocollis, Anemona (April 19, 2007). "Four Women Are Convicted in Attack on Man in Village". The New York Times. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
  9. ↑ Eligon, John (June 20, 2008). "Two Convictions Overturned in Attack on Man in Village". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  10. ↑ Italiano, Laura (12 April 2007). "Attack of the Killer Lesbians". New York Post. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  11. ↑ Hilliard, Chloe (April 3, 2007). "Girls to Men". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  12. ↑ O'Reilly, Bill; Rod Wheeler (June 21, 2007). "Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem". Fox News Network. Archived from the original on March 28, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  13. ↑ Buchanan, Susy; David Holthouse (July 3, 2007). "The Oh-Really Factor". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  14. ↑ Potok, Mark (December 21, 2007). "The Last Word: Hatewatch's 1st Annual Smackdown Awards". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  15. ↑ Henry, Imani (June 21, 2007). "Lesbians sentenced for self-defense". Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Out in the Night (2014) - IMDb". IMDb . June 12, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Homepage". Out In the Night. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  18. ↑ Holloway, Kali (December 27, 2014). "Documentaries Extraordinaire: the 12 Best and Most Powerful of 2014". AlterNet. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.