Supervisors Hear Concerns About Alleged Hate Crime, Sheriff Vasquez Provides Update
View VideoSonora, CA — The first hour of Tuesday’s Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors meeting featured mostly speakers who were concerned about last week’s alleged hate crime incident in Jamestown in which an LGBTQ community member was lured to an apartment building and assaulted.
Mary Smith, a member of the legal team representing the unidentified victim in the case, was an early speaker, who provided a statement on his behalf. She explained, “The victim was contacted through an app by another adult man who he thought he could build a friendship with based upon the shared and sometimes lonely experience of being a gay man in a small town. Instead of meeting a potential new friend, he was lured to a location where he was brutally beaten for the sole reason that he is gay. Any statement to the contrary is an obvious and disgusting attempt to justify gay bashing, and I hope that no one hearing me today makes space in their head or heart for such ugly, hateful, inflammatory, and patently false information.”
Smith added that the victim fully supports the sheriff’s office and district attorney in their investigation, and encouraged the board of supervisors to take an “unequivocal stand” that the community will not tolerate hate and bullying.
Many others encouraged the supervisors to take a formal stance to condemn the incident.
Toward the end of the conversation, Supervisor Anaiah Kirk requested that Sheriff David Vasquez provide an update on the case, and speak about whether officials have officially determined that it was a “hate crime.”
Vasquez stated, “It is an ongoing investigation. We are investigating it as a hate crime. As of right now, we have three individuals who have been arrested (since the incident took place to the current time). Right now we do not have the information that we need – we are actively pursuing and vetting – to then recommend whether hate applies to this crime. It is a very lengthy process. We are dealing with electronics, forensics, a lot of things go into it, and we have to be 100 percent sure.”
Supervisor Kirk was also questioned at various times by some of the public commenters about his past opposition to LGBTQ Pride resolutions.
You can click here to view a video of some of the comments from Sheriff Vasquez, followed by Kirk’s statements about where he stands on a future resolution condemning hate crimes (which is likely to come to the board in the coming weeks).
You can also find a similar story about calls for a resolution made at Monday’s Sonora City Council meeting by clicking here.
On a related note, the incident has caught the attention of a lawmaker at the state capitol in Sacramento. Mother Lode Senator Marie Alvarado Gil has put out a statement, noting, “I have been in contact with the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office and Supervisor Brandon to express my full support for their ongoing efforts in responding to the horrific assault on a young person in Jamestown. Violent attacks against any individual, regardless of protected class, are an assault on our entire community. We all deserve to feel safe, and I am committed to supporting our law enforcement as they work to ensure our government acts swiftly and decisively to protect us. I am praying for the victim’s speedy and full recovery.”
