News :: GLBT
Backlash to lenient sentence in gay bashing case by Ethan Jacobs
staff reporterThursday Jun 4, 2009 A group of local activists have planned a rally June 18 outside the Edward Brooke Courthouse to protest the sentence of Fabio Brandao, a 29-year-old Framingham man who pleaded guilty to taking part in a brutal gay bashing in the South End on Aug. 24.
Boston District Court Judge Thomas C. Horgan imposed a two-year suspended sentence and mandatory completion of an anger management program on Brandao, but the Anti-Violence Project and the grassroots LGBT group Join The Impact Massachusetts plan to demonstrate to send the message that they believe the sentence was too lenient.
Brandao pleaded guilty to nine charges, including four civil rights violations; he and three friends ambushed a group of four people in their mid-20s on Columbus Avenue who were returning home from the Roxy nightclub, and the assailants kicked and punched two of the men in the head, leaving them with cuts, bruises and mild concussions. Brandao and his assailants allegedly called the victims "faggots" during the assault.
"It’s just inconceivable that Brandao could have left two men brain-injured in the street on Columbus Avenue and then walk out of court with an anger management assignment. It shocks the conscience, and it points to a deep-seated problem the Anti-Violence Project has struggled with since 1986, and that’s that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people don’t get equal protection under the law," said Don Gorton, chair of the Anti-Violence Project.
One of the victims of the assault has also spoken out publicly about the sentence, arguing that it was too lenient (see "South End gay bashing victim responds to attacker’s light sentence," in our letters section, p. 6). Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office, which prosecuted the case, had recommended jail time for Brandao; Horgan disregarded Conley’s recommendation.
Kelcie Cooke, director of Fenway Community Health’s Violence Recovery Program, which works with victims of hate crimes, said her program has sought a meeting with Conley’s office in the aftermath of the sentence. "Fenway Health’s Violence Recovery Program is concerned that punishments for hate crimes be consistent with the offenses committed and will be meeting with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to talk about this case and hate crimes prosecutions in general," said Cooke in an e-mail to Bay Windows.
Gorton said he is particularly frustrated that Brandao escaped a jail sentence after pleading guilty to hate crimes charges.
"Now there are added legal protections in place that mandate tougher penalties for convicted gay bashers when they injure their victims. So even though we’ve made progress with the law we’re still not getting gay bashers into jail in cases of victim injury, and that’s profoundly troubling," said Gorton.
Christina Miller, Conley’s chief of district court and community prosecution, who helped oversee the Brandao case, said while her office would have preferred Brandao get jail time, she believes the hate crimes charges may have led to a steeper penalty than he otherwise would have received. Miller is also a board member and former co-chair of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association.
"It is always up to a court, given the variety of factors. I think if you did an analysis of [similar] cases that did not involve hate crimes the sentence would probably be lower," said Miller. The judge in this case, she said, considered a range of factors in deciding on a sentence, including the defendant’s lack of a prior criminal record, the severity of the assaults, and the anti-gay motive.
Miller said in prosecuting the case she was frustrated to discover that there are no court-approved programs designed to work with people convicted of hate crimes to try to prevent them from re-offending. Conley’s office recommended the anger management program as the best alternative, she said, but she believes the state needs to create a hate-crime equivalent for batterer’s intervention programs to reduce the chances that perpetrators will commit further acts of hate-motivated violence.
"That probably is because [with] a batterer’s intervention program, you have a larger pool of potential persons who would attend that. The potential pool here [for a hate-crimes program] is smaller but needed. We recommended in this case anger management because we explored options, and that was the only one we saw that may or may not address the issues presented," said Miller.
She said the hate crimes charges proved useful in other aspects of the Brandao case. Miller said the Boston Police’s Community Disorders Unit, which investigates hate crimes, was a key part of the team investigating the case. The hate crimes charges also gave Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office the leeway to take out a civil rights injunction against Brandao, barring him from making contact with the victims leading up to the trial date. Most importantly, said Miller, is the acknowledgement by the state that hate-motivated crimes are a particularly serious issue.
"In the criminal system having that extra charge, that takes into account the intent - what is the intent here, is it bias motivated - that gives us a piece that is important. It acknowledges that this state is going to tell people, and defendants and victims, that it is against the law to convert that bias into violence or intimidation. I do think the resources we have gives us a panoply of options in addressing these cases," said Miller.
For more information on the protest at the Edward Brooke Courthouse visit www.jointheimpactma.com.
Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com
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