Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Miami’s NBC affiliate reports:
Four men accused of attacking a gay couple after a Miami Beach pride parade back in 2018 have avoided prison time under a plea deal. Juan Carlos Lopez, Luis Alonso, Adonis Diaz and Pablo Figueroa were accused of beating a gay couple and calling them anti-gay slurs after the Pride Parade on South Beach.
The four had been facing hefty prison sentences after they were charges with aggravated battery with enhanced hate crime charges. But under Monday’s plea deal, the charges were changed to battery with prejudice, a second-degree felony.
All four received five years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and have to complete an anger management course.
From my February 2022 report:
Four young men did not act in self-defense when they beat up two gay men during a South Beach gay-pride celebration, a Miami judge ruled on Friday. Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan declined to dismiss the battery charges against Juan Carlos Lopez and three others who’d been charged in the high-profile attack in April 2018. The four were charged with battery under Florida’s “hate-crime” enhancement.
The decision concluded a three-day hearing in which the four men sought immunity under Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law. The controversial Florida law, passed in 2005, gave judges greater leeway to dismiss charges, and eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using force to counter a threat. Prosecutors said Lopez attacked the men after Rene Chalarca accidentally brushed him coming out of the bathroom.
As you’ll see in the second clip below, the victims were in court as the men apologized.
Four men guilty of hate crime for beating gay couple in South Beach but avoid jail time https://t.co/mECxqRd7cR
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 24, 2022