Man assaulted in P'town alleges police negligence

A 56-year-old New Bedford man is claiming that Provincetown police were negligent when they tended to him after he was assaulted Sept. 10. Richard Hall, who was vacationing in Provincetown with his partner, was attacked by unknown assailants in the early morning hours of Sept. 10. He said as a result of the physical trauma to his head during the assault he has no recollection of the aftermath of the attack, during which Provincetown police officers and a rescue squad were called to the scene by two men who witnessed him emerging from the beach access next to Bubala's restaurant on Commercial Street. Hall, who suffered abrasions to his face and welts on the back of his head, said that he should have been taken to the hospital immediately for medical treatment. The rescue squad treated his injuries at the scene, according to the police report, but Hall refused their request to transport him to the emergency room. Hall said that he was traumatized after the attack (he remembers little of the attack and says he has no memory of his encounter with police officers) and that police should have insisted he go to the hospital.

Hall also said police potentially put him in danger by leaving him in the care of strangers when he was not in his right mind. The police report for the case says that after questioning Hall at the scene police left him in the care of the two men who called to report the assault. Hall said he does not know who the two men were, and the police report does not give their names nor indicate whether police questioned the men to see if they knew Hall or had witnessed any portion of the attack. Acting Provincetown Police Chief Warren Tobias said that he has not spoken directly to the officers on the scene and does not know whether they questioned the men who found Hall.

Based on homophobic slurs that Hall believes were used by the attackers and the fact that neither the $200 in his wallet nor his credit cards were stolen, Hall said he believes the attack was an anti-gay hate crime, and he told Bay Windows he believed the Provincetown Police Department has failed to treat the assault as a hate crime in its investigation. Tobias said that based on the officers' interviews with Hall both at the scene of the attack and the next day there is no evidence he was the victim of a hate crime, and he said that because Hall cannot provide any information to identify the suspects police have no leads in the case.

After posts about the attack by bloggers on Blue Mass Group and KnowThyNeighbor.org alleging police negligence, police contacted Hall this week and invited him to come in to the station to discuss further details of the case. Hall said no meeting has been scheduled, but he plans to meet with police in the near future accompanied by Don Gorton, chair of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.

Hall said that during the attack one of the assailants struck him on the back of the head, and as a result he blacked out and experienced severe memory loss. He said he has no memory of many of the details of the attack nor of his interactions with police officers who arrived on the scene to investigate. To the best of his recollection he said he believes he was standing outside Spiritus Pizza on Commercial Street shortly before 1 a.m., eating a slice of pizza. He said he remembers a small group of men in their 20s walking past who shouted at him and called him a "faggot." Hall said he believes he shouted a retort back at them.

"The next thing I recall was something coming down on the back of my head so hard I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die,'" said Hall.

He said he remembers nothing of what happened after the attack, including his interview with police, and his next memory is of driving in his car at about 4 a.m. heading back home toward New Bedford, with cuts running down his face and a stabbing headache.

"About [when I reached] Brewster or Dennis I realized, what am I doing on the road?" said Hall.

He said he continued driving, and after he arrived home he called his hotel in Provincetown and reached his partner, Neil Parker, who he said was "beside himself" worrying about his whereabouts. Parker traveled back up to meet him in New Bedford.

The police report from the case fills in some of the missing details of what occurred that evening. The report notes that at about 2:47 a.m. police were dispatched to Spiritus Pizza after two men called and reported seeing Hall emerging from the beach access by Bubala's. When police arrived Hall told them he was eating a slice of pizza on the beach behind Bubala's. Hall told police three young males attacked him. At Hall's request police tried to call his wife Donna, but were unable to reach her. Hall asked police to leave him in the company of the men who called to report the incident. The report makes no mention of the men's names nor whether officers ever questioned them.

Officer Paul Joudrey, one of the officers who responded, wrote in his report, "Hall could not describe the suspects at all and told me he didn't want to say anything bad about them."

The report states that after parting company with Hall the officers searched the beach and the area around Spiritus for potential suspects or witnesses but found none.

The next day Hall said he called the Provincetown Police Department and spoke to Joudrey. According to a recording of their conversation, provided to Bay Windows by Provincetown Police, Joudrey told Hall that because Hall was unable to provide them with any identifying information about the attackers, police had few avenues open to investigate the attack.

"Really the way it stands now is without any description of the suspects or any idea of really who might have done it the best we can do is search the area, which we did," Joudrey told Hall. When Hall asked if they found anything, Joudrey replied that they did not but that they began searching about a half hour after the attack likely took place.

"So that's the problem. Sometimes we just don't catch them, unfortunately," said Joudrey.

During the conversation Hall thanked Joudrey for his help and praised the officers' work on the case.

"I guess you must have been very nice to me because I woke up in the morning feeling like whatever had happened, somehow it had been ameliorated by you guys. So thank you very much," said Hall.

But despite his comments to Joudrey, Hall told Bay Windows that the conversation left him far from satisfied. He said he was caught off guard by Joudrey's claim that there was little else police could do to investigate his case, and he said he declined to press him for further assistance because he "knew I was getting no further with him."

After he ended his call to the police, Hall e-mailed Provincetown town manager Sharon Lynn and wrote that he was upset that Joudrey had told him there was no more they could do to investigate. At Hall's request Gorton provided copies of the e-mails to Bay Windows. Hall described to Lynn what he remembered of the assault and said he believed he was the victim of an anti-gay hate crime.

"I guess I need to know that Provincetown is still a safe place for gay folks. ... I realize that nothing will come of [bringing the incident to your attention] other than possibly to make you folks more aware of what transpires at the hands of malcontents with a misguided mission," wrote Hall on Sept. 11.

In response to his e-mail, Lynn wrote, "I took some time today to review the reports from the police department. I feel confident that your incident was handled properly and actually was advised by Officer Joudrey that you thanked him personally. If I may be of further assistance please let me know."

Lynn did not return a call to comment for this story.

In response Hall wrote that he was surprised that police let him leave the scene without forcing him to go to the hospital. He also told Lynn that he felt that police had done little to prevent future anti-gay attacks in Provincetown.

"I do think it should be known that this incident occurred and that no real effort has been made on the part of the powers that be to stop its recurrence. ... If nothing else I'd suggest you make certain the town is monitored more closely by Officer Joudrey and his group," wrote Hall.

Hall said he went to the hospital Sept. 11, and a CAT scan found that the assault had caused no major physical damage, beyond the lacerations to the face and the welts on the back of his head.

Following his conversation with Joudrey and his e-mail exchange with Lynn, Hall contacted two LGBT organizations, KnowThyNeighbor.org and the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, both of which have since called on Provincetown officials to more aggressively investigate the attack and have urged police to investigate whether there was any footage of the attack captured on the Spiritus Pizza webcam, which broadcasts regularly updating images of the street in front of the restaurant on the Spiritus website. Alison Bennett, manager of Spiritus Pizza, told Bay Windows that the restaurant does not archive the footage displayed on the web.

Tobias said that given what little information Hall gave police, the department has no leads to pursue the investigation. He said both at the scene of the attack and in Hall's conversation with Joudrey the following day he made no mention of any of the attackers using homophobic language.

"At no point, place or time in their interactions does Mr. Hall ever tell the officers that there was any words used that would lead us to believe it was a hate crime," said Tobias.

There is no mention in the police report of Hall alleging that the attackers called him a faggot nor of his belief that the attack was a hate crime. Hall made no such claims in his subsequent phone conversation with Joudrey, but he did make the claim in his e-mail exchange with Lynn. Tobias said he does not recall Lynn discussing the possibility that the attack was a hate crime when she asked to review the police report and other case documents. He said the first time he became aware of the allegation that the attack was a hate crime was when he began receiving e-mails early this week from people who had read about the attack on blogs.

While the investigation is technically considered open, Tobias said police have no description of the assailants and no sense of the motive behind the attack.

"I would say the case is open, but frankly we don't have any leads. Mr. Hall is unable to provide us with any identifying information whatsoever," said Tobias.

When asked whether his officers should have insisted that Hall accept transport to the hospital from the rescue squad Tobias said he believes they acted appropriately. He said based on his conversations with the officers and the content of the police reports he believes Hall was capable of deciding whether or not to go to the hospital.

"I doubt that his injuries were so severe that he was incapable of making a decision. I have experienced people there, I'm not going to let that happen," said Tobias.

The assault on Hall marks the second time a gay man has publicly alleged mistreatment by Provincetown Police this summer. In July radio DJ Barry Scott alleged that police used excessive force in arresting him when they broke up a private party that he was deejaying (see "D.A. Says Cops Justified In Barry Scott Arrest," page 1). When asked whether the department was in danger of losing support from Provincetown's LGBT community as a result of the publicity around these incidents, Tobias responded that he is unsure whether the concern about those incidents comes from the wider community or a smaller segment of LGBT people.

"I don't know if that's a few, I don't know if that's some activists, I don't know if that's the community at large. From what I'm hearing from my community in Provincetown it's not the community at large," said Tobias.

He said all officers on his force are committed to serving the entire Provincetown community, including LGBT people. Tobias said he is unsure whether the department needs to do outreach to improve its relationship to the local LGBT community because he does not know if there are truly concerns in the community about the incidents.

"There may be [a need to do outreach], but I'm not sure to what degree," said Tobias.