Suspect in Boston anti-gay attack pleads not guilty

Fabio Brandao of Framingham pled not guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and civil rights violations in Boston Municipal Court yesterday. The charges stem from his involvement in an apparent gay bashing in Boston's South End in the early morning hours of Aug. 24.

Brandao was released on $10,000 bail until his next court appearance on Oct. 10. He was ordered to stay out of the South End and away from the four victims of the attack in addition to having a curfew that will keep him confined to his residence from 10 p.m to 7 a.m.

Brandao, who was accompanied to the proceedings by several family members, remained seated during his arraignment at the request of his attorney Francis M. Doran, who argued that the media attention surrounding the case might prejudice potential jurors. A handful of media outlets and TV cameras were present in the courtroom at the arraignment. Following the proceedings, Brandao and his supporters were trailed to an elevator by reporters and TV camera operators angling for a comment from the defendant.

Assistant District Attorney Vincent DeMore said that the car that was identified by the victims at the scene of the attack was registered to Brandao. Additionally he said, "a cell phone was found at the scene and that belongs to the defendant as well."

The victims, four friends in their mid-20s, told Bay Windows that they were walking home at around 2:45 a.m., along Columbus Avenue, somewhere between Dartmouth and West Canton streets, after a night clubbing at the Roxy in downtown. One of the victims, a Jamaica Plain woman named Jenna, said that she and her friends heard a group of men shouting at them from a parked white sedan. They kept wal king, but before they could go far, the four men got out of their car and started coming towards them.

"I saw the men getting out of the car, and I approached them first and said, 'Just get back in your car... We're just heading home,'" said Jenna, who asked that Bay Windows withhold her last name due to safety concerns. "They were like, 'Fuck you, your fucking friends are faggots,' and one of them punched me in the face."

When her two friends, Scott Cain of the South End and John of Jamaica Plain, who also asked to withhold his last name, came to her aid, the attackers turned on them. Two of them began beating Cain and another kicked John in the face repeatedly as he lay on the ground, shouting "Fuck you, faggots" throughout the attack. Jeffrey was furthest away from the incident and was not directly involved in the physical confrontation.

The attackers ran back to their car to get away, Jenna said, when she pulled her phone out and threatened to call the police. She ran after them and dialed 911 on her cell phone; when an operator answered, she shouted the license plate number of the car into the phone.

"I was screaming it repeatedly into the phone over and over again," said Jenna. "That's when the guys in the car yelled, 'Bitch, you better move or I'm gong to hit you.'" She jumped out of the way, and the car sped off.

After the attackers fled, Jenna and Jeffrey found John lying unconscious on the sidewalk, but Cain was nowhere in sight. They were able to reach him moments later on his cell phone; he was in his Massachusetts Avenue apartment, but had no idea how he got there.

"I woke up in my apartment, completely covered in blood, like from the movies," said Cain, who said that he could not remember the assault itself or the immediate aftermath.

Police and EMTs arrived on the scene and immediately brought John to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, picking up Cain on the way. Jenna and Jeffrey stayed behind to report the incident; police also recovered a cell phone at the scene that may have belonged to the attackers.

John and Cain, who both sustained concussions, were released later that day; Cain also sustained deep cuts above his eye and his temple requiring stitches. Neither man remembers any details of the assault. The three victims and Jeffrey said they told police that the attackers were four Hispanic males, but they were not able to provide police with any further identifying information. Cain told Bay Windows the attackers looked like "four frat boys."

Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston Police, said the Community Disorders Unit, which focuses on hate crimes, is leading the investigation, working with detectives from the Area D4 station. She said police are following up on the information the victims gave them and the 911 operator about the assailants' car, which they believe was a white Honda station wagon.

"The detectives do have some information to go by and they are in the process of tracking the information down. I don't have the conclusive information yet, but investigators are working to determine who the owner of the vehicle is and whether or not the vehicle was involved," said Driscoll, adding that detectives are also trying to verify the identity of the owner of the cell phone and discover whether the owner was involved.

Cain said police interviewed him about what he remembers, took pictures of his wounds and took the bloodied clothes he wore that night to use as evidence. Police and his friends have filled him in about much of what happened that night, but no one knows how Cain got from the scene of the attack to his apartment.

"The part that scares me the most is what I don't remember. ... They said they saw me go down, I was unconscious, and when they drove away I was gone," said Cain, who said his face is covered in bruises and he has had trouble closing his jaw since the attack.

John said the concussion he sustained was relatively minor, and he still has some minor cuts and bruises.

"Ten years in Boston I've never felt uncomfortable, and now it's weird for me to think about walking down Columbus, which I did all the time," he said. "But I also feel very lucky. I got a couple bruises and scrapes, but it could have been a lot worse."

Jenna said she has a bruise over one eye, but most of the trauma she endured has been psychological.

"Emotionally, I'm completely on edge and I haven't been sleeping, and the smallest thing makes me go off into bouts of anxiety. Even retelling this story has me shaking," said Jenna.