News Roundup for August 31, 2011
Jury deliberations resumed Monday in the trial of a California teen accused of murdering a gay classmate three years ago. Seventeen-year-old Brandon McInerney is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard. McInerney has pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and a hate crime.
A Stockton woman was arrested for allegedly assaulting her child's principal over a dress code violation by punching her in the face. Police say Pami Gibbs also is accused of making references to ethnicity during the attack on Evangelina Ramos. Gibbs was booked on two felony charges of battery, criminal threats, and three misdemeanors, including hate crime.
Police in Staunton, Va., are investigating an incident where an expletive and “KKK” were burned into a person’s yard last week. Police do not consider the incident a hate crime because the home is occupied by a white family. No arrests have been made.
Police are continuing to investigate an attack against a 21-year-old transgender woman who was beaten with a baseball bat in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Wash. According to police, who have stopped short of labeling the assault as a bias crime, the victim reported that she was attacked when a woman with a baseball bat, and a man, started following her and hit her. If an arrest is made, prosecutors will decide whether to pursue bias-crime charges against the attacker.
