Collin Finnerty goes to trial in anti-gay DC assault
by Matt | April 25th, 2006 |Duke Lacrosse player Collin Finnerty had a hearing in Washington, DC, today in connection the simple assault on a man which included anti-gay taunts and prejudice.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Finnerty’s original plea deal has been revoked due to his current troubles involving the rape at Duke University:
An assistant U.S. attorney on Tuesday revoked a deal that would have allowed Duke lacrosse player Collin Finnerty to serve 25 hours of community service instead of going to trial on a simple assault charge stemming from a Nov. 5 incident in Georgetown.
Finnerty, 19, had agreed to the deal on March 23. It would have allowed the Washington assault charge to be dismissed, provided the Duke student was not arrested again for six months.
But last week, Finnerty was arrested in Durham on felony charges of rape, sex offense and kidnapping in connection with a dancer’s allegation that he was one of three men who raped, sodomized and choked her at a March lacrosse team party. A second Duke player was also charged.
Superior Court Judge John Bayly tentatively set a July 10 trial date on the assault charge pending in Washington.
Finnerty and two high school classmates were arrested and charged on Nov. 5, in connection with a fight outside a bar in Georgetown, a trendy part of Washington. Jeffrey Bloxsom told police the three men punched him after he asked them to stop calling him gay.
Related: Past posts on Collin Finnerty
14 Responses to “Collin Finnerty goes to trial in anti-gay DC assault”
Durham County has also decided to reinstate charges against a half dozen other Duke lacrosse players for drinking-related offenses.
Among them is David Evans, a co-captain of the team, who had prior arrests for noise violations and illegal possession of alchohol. After having agreed before the court to remain on good behavior, Evans instead decided to host the party for which the strippers were hired and where alcohol was served to underage drinkers. In other words, despite having been arrested, he continued to do whatever he damn well pleased, including thumbing his nose at an agreement he made with a public prosecutor.
Since the Duke adminstration, their coach, and their parents (all of whom knew of these prior offenses) all abdicated their responsibilities to impose any limits on this team’s behavior, it has devolved upon the civil authorities to keep this roving band of good-timers in check.
I worked my way through Duke Law School by being a Resident Advisor and by joining the Duke campus police force. At that time, the University wanted to keep Durham police out of student affairs as much as possible, since they were far less likely to be tolerant of the casual marijuana use and rowdiness that marks any campus, then and now. An unspoken agreement existed between the campus and city police forces that, if the university would keep things reasonably in check at their end, the city police would not go out of their way to intrude upon student behavior.
Although the Duke admininstration was not necessarily even-handed (I posted earlier about their allowing an anti-gay banner to remain displayed on campus), they at least attempted to maintain a semblance of public order in the student body. For whatever reason, they seem since to have abandoned the effort. The adminstration’s attempt to foist this responsibility off onto the athletic program staff begot exactly the result that should have been expected . . . zippo.
I find it extraordinarily stupid of the university to have let the situation come to this pass. Were the meek, bespectacled souls over in the Allen Building just plain scared of taking on the jocks and their supporters?
By Mike Pyles on Apr 25, 2006
Mike,
I now completely understand your viewpoint. You were a campus cop! And a RA! Granted, some RA’s are as cool as the next guy - but I’ve never met a campus cop with a sense of humor for the acts of typical drunken college kids….
BUT. In the case of Finnerty, I just heard (via Dan Abrams) that the victim of the Georgetown assault is HETEROSEXUAL. The defense has also stated that Finnerty and friends used the term “gay” in a “colloquial” way…such as “that’s so gay, man” etc..
Does this make a difference in anyones mind?
If the guy was heterosexual and Finnerty&Co. never presumed the man to be homosexual - doesn’t sound like a “crime of bias” to me???
Not sure of the law in DC - but I’m sure one element for a prima facie case would be that Finnerty presumed the victim to be gay…
By Big Daddy Weave on Apr 25, 2006
Well, Big Daddy, I don’t know about a sense of humor, but I engaged in some of the typical acts of drunken college kids (including a contest to see who could urinate over the hood of cars parked in Edens parking lot). However, I never got arrested, and I certainly never entered into a plea agreement with the court that I then promptly ignored. That is going beyond the pale of pranks.
I have known that Bloxgom was heterosexual since the story first broke. However, he was taunted by Finnerty and Company for walking down the street in the wee hours with another man after they had (unbeknownst to Finnerty, et al.) dropped off a girlfriend of one of the men. And when Bloxgom dared to challenge the Finnerty gang for hurling invective at him, they decided he deserved a beating. This did not originate as good-natured colloquial banter. Finnerty thought the term gay was sufficiently insulting to get a rise out of someone, and he got exactly the result he intended — a reason to pick a fight.
By Mike Pyles on Apr 25, 2006
Many college students, including myself, have participated in college pranks and behavior which could have resulted in getting arrested. Most of us escape the po-po. Some of the Duke Lacrosse players did not.
I don’t think the details of the Finnerty/Bloxgom assault are as clear cut as you’ve described. Either way, Finnerty’s defense asserts it was “colloquial banter.” Still, Finnerty was not charged with a crime of bias.
By Big Daddy Weave on Apr 25, 2006
I, too, have done things for which I could have been arrested. And if you saw my driving, you’d know I still do.
However, it is really a matter of odds. When a third of the lacrosse team has been arrested, some of them twice, and Finnerty has already been arrested twice for physical assault, there is a lot more going on here than the typical bad luck of getting caught that once or twice you got too far over the line.
I was at Duke over 10 years between undergrad, grad school, law school, and working there. While a member of the campus police force, I saw all the reports on students who got arrested by the city. I can assure you I never saw numbers remotely near the percentage of lacrosse players who have been arrested. If this is what now passes for normal student behavior at Duke, this case is just the beginning of the troubles that lay ahead for Duke.
I know of very, very few students who graduated from Duke with a criminal record. It now seems that at least seven of this year’s lacrosse team will (and I’m not counting the rape charges, which may not result in convictions). Just student hijinks? I don’t think so. This is a band of testoserone-driven, alcohol-fuelled adolescents over whom neither parents nor coaches nor school administration is exerting any control. And, as they will discover when they try to cope with adult life, they are being very poorly served.
By Mike Pyles on Apr 25, 2006
No one has said the crime was a hate crime. I have never argued that and I am certainly not aware of any other activists or advocates arguing that. What I am arguing is that while the crime was not a “hate crime”, per se, it still did involve personal bias against gay people; if Finnerty had not have had some sort of bias then he wouldn’t have used the words he did use. He was using anti-gay language… what… hear that “ANTI-gay language”… there is definitely some bias in that.
By Matt on Apr 25, 2006
Still, I submit that the Defense has asserted the term gay was used in a “colloquial” way and not gay-baiting.
I do think terms need to be defined.
For instance, the difference between a Hate Crime and an Anti-Gay Assault?? While you’ve never stated the misdemeanor assaul was a “hate crime” you have implicitly and explicitly stated a causal connection exists between Finnerty’s assault and RAPE. Even the Judge in Georgetown didn’t buy that argument…
Mike,
I will admit the lacrosee team is like a ROWDY FRAT. Here’s the question - where does the buck stop? With the President and Provost? Or with the Coach and Athletic Director? Sure, the President ultimately takes the HEAT - but who would expect both the Coach and Athletic Director not to do their jobs??
Exotic Dancers and Athletes are never a good match….
I.E. Minnesota Vikings SEX BOAT CRUISE…
By Big Daddy Weave on Apr 26, 2006
Of course the defense team — now that they have to go to trial — would assert that the term “gay” was used “colloquially”. In order to have any chance of prevailing, they have to make the case that Bloxgom’s response to the taunt was itself provocative — and in greater degree than Finnerty’s intitial remarks. That’s going to be quite an uphill battle, given the fact that the law does not confer the right to escalate a verbal interchange into a physical attack. And it was Finnerty who crossed the street to beat Bloxgom, not the other way around.
Frankly, I’m no fan of anyone in this episode. I’m tired of hearing people argue this was not gay baiting because Bloxgom is straight. (Baiting is assessed from the antagonist’s perception, not from the victim’s actual status.) And I’m tired of hearing Bloxgom whine that being called gay is “derogatory”.
In particular, I found the spokeswoman for the Washington District Attorney to be offensive. She said this was not charged as a bias crime because Bloxgom contributed to the escalation of the event by telling Finnerty and his cohorts to stop their verbal abuse. Basically, she was saying that if you are a victim of a bias crime and dare to protest to your assailant, you lose the protection of the anti-bias law. How dare the black victim tell mass’ah not to call him “nigger”? How dare the sissy, fainting gay to stand up for himself?
I’ll admit I’ve been off campus for a while. But there were rowdy frats in my time, and none of them accumulated anything near the arrest record of the lacrosse team. Trying to characterize the lacrosse team’s behavior as within the pale of normal youthful exuberance just doesn’t cut it with me.
As Brodhead is finding out, the buck stops with him. This notion that athletes should be under one disciplinary system administered by the athletics department and the rest of the students should be under another system administration by the Office of Student Affairs reinforces the notion that members of sports teams are athletes first and students second. By adopting the model that prevails at such schools as the University of Alabama, Duke is going to have to accept the fact that its reputation as an academics-first institution will be perpetually compromised.
I am a partner in a major investment firm, and I know a couple of things. College students with the arrest records the lacrosse team are accumulating would not be hired at our firm (and we have students from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and their like line up for jobs here). And my colleagues comment openly to me on their surprise that Duke is such a party school instead of the serious academic institution they thought it was.
Duke had done a fine job over the past couple of decades in supplanting the “southern party school” image with that of a top-notch academic institution. Whether justifiably or not, this mess has erased years of progress and put Duke back in the position of having to make the case all over again that academic concerns hold first position there. I hope this lacrosse program was worth it.
By Mike Pyles on Apr 26, 2006
you’re all f’n idiots. The kid went to a party which had a stripper at it…is that blatently ignoring a plea deal? I think not. Just cause some low class stripper whore pinned accusations on him does not mean he simply ignored a plea deal…you f’n moran! Since when is it illegal to have a stripper over? And who hasnt called someone gay or a faggot in their lives, or who hasnt punched someone in the face…I mean come on, get real…its a little different that stealing a taxi cab, such as the accused did. She also has cried rape in the past and did not go through with that one…we’ll see if she does this one.
By peter on May 3, 2006
correct the above entry…toward the end of the paragraph, I meant to say, “such as the accuser did”
By peter on May 3, 2006
mike pyles…you’re a rookie. Every school has a group of partiers…including Harvard. Get a grip! You make up the ignorant population in America who lets some piece of trash girl in North Carolina sway your way of thinking. Good going douchebag. Hey, maybe she has a bridge in NY to sell your firm at a discount.
By peter on May 3, 2006
wheres my blog?
By peter on May 3, 2006
Peter — Comments made by first time commenters must first be moderated before appearing on the site. They should be up now.
By Matt on May 3, 2006
It’s looking more and more like the intersections of hate ARE all around this case: a hatred for white males (otherwise why would so many in the black-on-black crime-ridden Durham area be so ready to lynch three whites on nothing but the word of a very questionable accuser, and accept the threats made by the anti-gay anti-white NBP group?
By Joe T. on Jun 6, 2006