Natives hating on Natives

Men face hate crime charges: First local charges involving sexual orientationCriminal charges claiming three men attacked another while calling him "faggot" will now be prosecuted as a hate crime—the first hate charges involving sexual orientation filed in San Juan County.

"It was a gay-bashing kind of deal—that's the way it reads to me," Deputy District Attorney Brent Capshaw said. "I've got all three of them making those comments to the police. It sure sounds like a hate crime."The incident: Sept. 22, Matthew Shetima reported to Farmington Police he was walking through an alley near the Journey Inn on Glade Lane and was called over to talk to several men, who started hitting him while yelling derogatory statements.

When he fell, the men began to kick him saying, "You want to die, faggot?" the police report states. Shetima was then pulled into the men's hotel room, where they continued to punch and kick him before he escaped.The perpetrators: Shetima later identified Paul, Yazzie and Thompson to police.

Paul, of Shiprock, and Yazzie, of Dennehotso Ariz., were charged with kidnapping and felony aggravated battery, and waived preliminary hearings. If convicted of the charges as a hate crime, they could each face 14 years in prison.The excuses: Attorneys representing the men each claim the hate crime enhancement is unfounded because the men were not out searching for a homosexual to attack, and that the charge is being used by the District Attorney's Office to sensationalize the case.

"Here you don't have this active aggression of young men looking to beat up a homosexual," said Cosme Ripol, representing Thompson. "You have a homosexual continually advertising his homosexuality, and he's coming around these guys and wanting to cry and share his pain and anguish over a failed relationship, over booze."