Police in York, Pennsylvania arrested 22-year-old Devin Harbaugh on charges of aggravated assault and strangulation. He was accused of suffocating a drug performer outside the Gift Horse Brewing Company on August 22, and was allegedly targeting the three for recognizing sexual orientation and gender expressions.
According to a police affidavit, Harbaugh and the victim were identified as Sible Civil Stackhouse, a drug performer known to friends as Vine Discalone – was on the gift horse when an argument broke out between a group of friends that night.
Later that night, on North George Street, Harbaugh ran to the back of Disaroon, grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground.
“Harbaugh holds [victim] The affidavit is pronounced in a chokehold for approximately 11 seconds.”[Victim] Apparently he is completely limp/unconscious for 17 seconds. For those 17 seconds, [victim] It looks like it’s shaking or ulking. ”
The witnesses disbanded the argument, with both Harbaugh and the bleacher being treated for the injuries he suffered in the hospital.
That night, adidri’s friend Brady Pappas wrote on Facebook that he threw anti-gay slander as a group of customers left the bar, yelling, “If you want to dress like a woman, act like a woman.” He says the group chased them down the street, where a man attacked the ad bugs, threw them away, suffocating them until they began to tremble.
Pappas said he and another friend tried to pull Harbaugh away from the Disaroon until a gift horse employee rested him. He added that attackers accused the victims of using “Because they are gay” as an excuse, and that officers first rejected their accounts and charged both Harbaugh and Disaroon for disorderly conduct.
Police did not initially arrest him, but after Pappas’s post attracted media attention, York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow ordered a review of the incident, meeting with officers, reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses and victims.
Police did not make their first arrest, but after Pappas’s post attracted media attention, York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow ordered a review of the case.
“In this community, incidents where “hate violence” are allegedly a “horrible violence” will always prioritize me, this department, the entire York City government,” Muldrow wrote on Facebook.
Police later compiled evidence, including surveillance footage, and filed a charge against Harbaugh with York District Attorney Tim Barker. The attacks are not charged as a hate crime, as Pennsylvania law does not cover LGBTQ people, according to Claire Tumey, executive director of the York City Human Rights Commission.
“In Pennsylvania, hate crimes are classified as threats,” Twomey told NBC affiliate Wgal. “It covers only four categories: race, color, ethnicity and religion. LGBTQ and other groups do not have any hate crime jurisdiction. It is not within the scope of the DA to pursue hate crime.”
Twomey is calling on Pennsylvania to expand its hate crimes law to cover additional communities, including LGBTQ people.
Twomey is calling on Pennsylvania to expand its hate crimes law to include additional communities, including LGBTQ people.
“Unfortunately, this case was not motivated by bias or bias against anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community,” Harbaugh’s lawyer, George Marros, told WGAL.
The Gift Horse Brewing Company has condemned the attack on Facebook and calls it “an unpleasant act of hatred.”
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Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
