Apr 20, 2006  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Duke University lacrosse player Collin Finnerty, charged with an anti-gay assault in Georgetown last year, will return to D.C. Superior Court on April 25 to face new repercussions from his indictment this week on rape charges in North Carolina.

Finnerty and a fellow Duke lacrosse team member are accused of raping a woman hired to perform as a stripper for a team party. Finnerty, 19, was arrested April 18 and charged with first-degree rape, first-degree forcible rape and kidnapping. Bond was set at $400,000.

A North Carolina grand jury returned indictments against Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, both sophomores at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Finnerty, who lives in a New York suburb, was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5 for allegedly assaulting Jeffrey Bloxgom outside the Daily Grill in Georgetown. Court records say that just before the assault, Finnerty yelled anti-gay epithets at Bloxgom.

In lieu of a trial, Finnerty was allowed to participate in a diversionary program for first-time offenders and was ordered to perform 25 hours of community service.

But Channing Phillips, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, said Finnerty is now in danger of having to go to trial for the alleged attack because of his arrest in North Carolina.

Finnerty is scheduled to appear before D.C. Superior Court Judge John Bailey Jr. at 9:30 a.m. on April 25, when a decision could be made to try him on misdemeanor simple assault charges.

Phillips said Finnerty’s arrest in North Carolina triggered a re-evaluation of the D.C. case.

"It’s like when someone is on probation," he said. "The court orders that person should not be rearrested on probable cause because it could be seen as a violation."

According to court records for the Georgetown assault, Bloxgom told police "he was minding his business" when Finnerty and two other men "began picking on him for no apparent reason."

Records say Bloxgom "told them to stop calling him gay and other derogatory names." When Bloxgom tried to walk away, the three men "attacked him, busting his lip and bruising his chin." Bloxgom was treated for his injuries.

Also arrested were Daniel D’Agnes, a Georgetown University student, and Patrick Bonanno, who attends Providence College in Rhode Island.

Finnerty, D’Agnes and Bonanno reportedly played on the same high school lacrosse team.

No hate crime charge

D.C. prosecutors did not treat the attack as a hate crime, said U.S. Attorney spokesperson Stephanie Bragg Lee, because the circumstances didn’t warrant hate crime status.

"It was an argument between two young guys who were sizing each other up," she said. "Both sides had an equal portion of discussion, so we felt it wasn’t specifically a hate crime. So we waived the option there."

She said prosecutors consider hate crime charges on a case-by-case basis and are not necessarily warranted from name-calling, even when the words used are anti-gay. She said attorneys considered all the facts when determining whether a hate crime occurred, and the circumstances in the Nov. 5 attack didn’t justify it.

Mindy Daniels, an attorney who helped write the District’s hate crime statute, said prosecutors would have needed to prove the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

"I can say historically the U.S. Attorney’s Office has not been comfortable charging a hate crime unless they feel that the motivation was solely based on bias," she said. "It just sounds like the U.S. Attorney’s Office felt it would be easier to prove the crime without the additional element of bias."

The hate crime statute in D.C. has been called one of the most far-reaching and comprehensive in the nation. It broadly defines a bias-related crime as a "designated act that demonstrates an [accused person’s] prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibility, physical handicap, matriculation or political affiliation of a victim of the subject designated act."

The designated acts include arson, assault, burglary, injury to property, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, rape, robbery, theft, unlawful entry, or attempting, aiding, abetting, advising, inciting, conniving or conspiring to commit any of those acts.

Under the statute, a person found guilty of committing a designated act with a bias-related motive is subject to penalties 1.5 times higher than the maximum that could be imposed otherwise.

Hate crime reports urged

Brett Parson, a metropolitan D.C. police sergeant and commander of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said victims should always report a suspected hate crime.

"People just need ...