RIVERSIDE - Those who believe Jeffery Owens was attacked and killed because he was gay are planning a rally Friday in Riverside to demand hate-crime allegations dismissed last week be re-filed.

An official with the Riverside County district attorney's office said Wednesday that a decision on whether to re-file the special allegation will likely be made today. Supervising Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said an initial review of the preliminary hearing indicates Judge Patrick Magers made the correct ruling last week when he dismissed the hate-crime allegation.

"The judge gave it a careful analysis," Mitchell said.

Prosecutors have the option of re-filing the hate-crime charge, but it is likely the defense would then ask another judge to review the preliminary hearing transcripts and request the allegation be dropped.

Rally organizer Shelley Brayton of Riverside said the purpose of Friday's planned gathering is not to criticize the judge's ruling or the handling of the case by prosecutors. Instead, she said, rally supporters want a jury to decide whether the attack was a hate crime.

"Let a jury make the decision," she said. "Don't leave it up to one person."

Mitchell said no new evidence has been discovered supporting the hate-crime charge since the preliminary hearing.

"We can only file those charges that are supported by the evidence," Mitchell said.

A conviction on a hate-crime could lead to a sentence of life without parole for the person who stabbed Owens and additional prison time for any others involved in the crime.

Magers ruled there was not enough evidence to hold the five defendants on a hate-crime charge that stemmed from the June attack on Owens, a 40-year-old Moreno Valley man who died hours after being stabbed outside The Menagerie, a gay bar in Riverside. Owens was with several friends in a parking lot when the attack took place.

Magers did hold the defendants on the most serious charge -- murder -- even as defense attorneys raised questions about the medical treatment Owens received at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley.

A hate-crime expert said there is enough evidence available to bring the issue before a jury. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, is scheduled to speak at the rally.

The question of whether the attack was or was not a hate crime is not a "slam dunk," Levin said, so it should be left up to a jury to decide.

Factors that support a hate-crime charge, Levin said, are: no other apparent motive for the attack; lack of relationship between the defendants and victims; and timing and location of the attack. Add a statement reportedly made by one of the defendants in which a slur is uttered and it makes a case for the hate-crime allegation.

"I think that creates a reasonable question that should be determined by a jury," Levin said.

Reach Jose Arballo Jr. at (909) 368-9412 or jarballo@pe.com

Owens Case Rally

What: Speakers and a candlelight vigil protesting dropping of hate-crime charge in stabbing death of Jeffrey Owens

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Behind The Menagerie, University Avenue and Orange Street, downtown Riverside

Official Jeffery Owens Website: http://groups.msn.com/JefferyOwens

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