'Brody Attack Nothing Like Shepard Murder' DA Says
by Matt Johns
365Gay.com Newscenter in Los Angeles
October 14, 2002

(Los Angeles, California)  The Los Angeles County District attorney is accusing Mayor James K. Hahn of pandering to a "vigilante mentality" over the beating of actor Trev Broudy.

After a week of intense criticism for dropping hate-crime charges against the three charged in the beating Steve Cooley has gone on the offensive.

Last week Hahn told a crowd of 300 gathered to remember Shepard in West Hollywood that Cooley's decision not to file hate-crime charges in the Sept. 2 attacks had sent "the wrong message."

Earlier, the mayor sent a letter to Cooley saying that the decision had "perpetuated the harm that was caused by these attacks."

Now, Hahn is accusing Cooley of using the memory of Matthew Shepard as a political tool. 

In a letter to Hahn, Cooley called Hahn's remarks "professionally troubling and inflammatory."

"Your suggestion that I am sending the 'wrong message' in not filing a hate crime is irresponsible and panders to a vigilante mentality inconsistent with due process," the letter read. "I took an oath to uphold the law as chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County. I am responsible to the people, not the politicians."

Cooley says that there is nothing to suggest the beatings of Broudy and his friend Edward Ulett, or those of two other gay men in West Hollywood were hate crimes because anti-gay epithets were not yelled.

Broudy returned to his West Hollywood home on the weekend.  Shortly after he was released from hospital last week he said he believed the attacks were hate motivated.

©365Gay.com Ltd® 2002

Trev Broudy Speaks Out
by Matt Johns
365Gay.com Newscenter in Los Angeles
October 11, 2002

(West Hollywood, California)  Actor Trev Broudy has been released from hospital.  Broudy is continuing to recuperate from a Labor Day beating in West Hollywood and will require months of physiotherapy.  The actor, who appeared in The Fluffer, is staying with his parents in Santa Barbara but expects to return to his West Hollywood apartment on the weekend.

Broudy says he is angered over the decision by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office not to charge his three alleged attackers with a hate crime.

"It's very difficult for me to speak," Broudy said. "There's, like, different parts of my brain that aren't working."

Broudy and his friend Edward Ulett has just hugged goodbye on West Hollywood street when they were attacked from behind by a man wielding a baseball bat. Police are continuing to investigate three other attacks on gay men in the area and believe the same men are responsible for all of the beatings.

In West Hollywood, speaking to a remembrance rally to mark the fourth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's murder, Los Angeles  Mayor James K. Hahn called on Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley to reconsider the decision not to file hate crime charges against the men accused of the attack. 

Hahn said Cooley's decision not to file hate crime charges "sends the wrong message."

"If he needs more time to investigate it," Hahn said, "take the time to make the decision correctly."

The three defendants in the case have pleaded innocent to two counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and one count each of attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. They all were jailed in lieu of bail.

Cooley, earlier this week, said that his office believes the motive for the attack was robbery and not the victim's sexual orientation, even though the Sheriff's Department had originally laid hate crime charges.

Cooley said there is no evidence to indicate that the assault on Broudy and Ulett was a hate crime because the attackers didn't say anything about Broudy's sexuality.

©365Gay.com Ltd® 2002