CNLA - City Outraged as Hate Crime Charges Dropped

City of West Hollywood
Issues Statement

City of West Hollywood officials reacted with outrage today to the L.A. County District Attorney’s decision not to charge the three suspects in the recent, brutal attack of actor Trev Broudy with a hate crime. The three suspects were arraigned today in Beverly Hills Superior Court with assault, robbery and conspiracy charges.

“We are very concerned with the lack of aggressive prosecution from the D.A.’s office,” said West Hollywood City Manager Paul Arevalo. “We have expressed our disappointment to the D.A.’s office and we have called on Governor Gray Davis and the State Attorney General’s office to step in and lead in the prosecution of this hate crime.”

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West Hollywood in outrage after Prosecutors drop hate crime charges

By Ramon Alexander Jaime
Updated Tuesday, October 8, 2002 7:45am PST

(West Hollywood) An angry crowd of 300 people demonstrated in West Hollywood Thursday night and nearly 500 on Friday night, after the Los Angeles County District Attorney dropped hate-crimes charges against three men charged in the near fatal beating of actor Trev Broudy.

Prosecutor Scott Millington amended the charges against Larry Walker, 29, his brother, Vincent Dotson, 18, and Torwin Sessions, 19, dropping hate-crimes from the indictment a day after they were laid by the West Hollywood division of the Sheriff's Department.

The trio is charged with one count of attempted robbery, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. One of the assault charges carries the allegation of great bodily injury because Broudy was beaten with a baseball bat and remains hospitalized.

Millington said he believed it would be too difficult to prove the attack on Broudy was motivated by hate, because no homophobic epithets were used in the attack, but he did not rule out reinstating the charge at a later date.

If convicted of the hate-crime charges would face an extra 18 years in prison.

Community activists were outraged that the charges were dropped.

West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tem Steve Martin and other community leaders organized Thursday night's protest at Santa Monica and San Vincente Boulevards.

"We're absolutely incredulous. This is not what we were expecting," Martin said of Millington's decision.

"I guess there's a sense that the crime has been trivialized to some mundane, run-of-the-mill attempted robbery."

Protestors carried signs condemning the District Attorney.

Broudy and his friend Edward Ulett were attacked on Sept. 1 near Cynthia Street and Hillside Drive.

The conspiracy charge relates to the attack on a third man, Christopher Roehm. He was confronted by three men in the area about an hour before the attack on Broudy and Ulett.

The Sheriff's Department is investigating a fourth attack, and more charges are pending.