Hate crime charges dropped for most of the Salisbury University students who allegedly beat a man they lured to an apartment

By Alaa Elassar and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN

(CNN) — Hate crime charges have been dropped for all but three of the 15 students at Salisbury University in Maryland who police said targeted a man and lured him to an off-campus apartment where they beat him, court records show.

All of the students were initially charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crimes in connection with the October 15 incident, which the Salisbury Police Department said in November was due to the victim’s sexual orientation.

Following their preliminary hearings on Thursday and Friday, 12 of the students now face reduced charges including second-degree assault and false imprisonment, both of which are misdemeanors, according to court records.

“The State’s Attorney’s Office has reviewed the evidence gathered during the course of the investigation and we have charged as appropriate in light of that evidence,” the Wicomico County State’s Attorney’s Office in Maryland said in a statement to CNN. “As this is a pending criminal prosecution, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

Three of the 15 students, all men ranging in age from 18 to 21, are still facing hate crime charges, according to court records, though the reason for this remains unclear.

Police said a man was invited “under false pretenses” to an apartment in Salisbury, where a group of men immediately surrounded him upon entry, forced him into a chair in the living room and then proceeded to kick, punch and spit on him while calling him derogatory names.

All 15 suspects were suspended from Salisbury University, with some of those also expelled from their fraternity, the institutions said.

Salisbury Police and Salisbury University have not responded to CNN’s request for comment regarding the recently dropped charges.

One of the accused men met the victim on the LGBTQ dating app Grindr, pretended to be 16 years old and set a date to meet up “for the purposes of having sexual intercourse,” according to the charging documents. The legal age of consent in Maryland is 16 years old.

When the victim entered the apartment and shut the door, one of the students yelled “YEE YEE,” and about 15 college-aged men appeared from the bedrooms and assaulted him while using a homophobic slur, among other derogatory terms, to refer to him, police allege.

The victim told police he tried to leave the apartment several times but was “grabbed by multiple people and thrown to the ground,” according to the charging document. The victim was eventually allowed to leave and discovered he had suffered a broken rib and multiple bruises across his body as a result of the attack, police said.

The alleged beating, which lasted about five to six minutes, came to light after two witnesses reported to university police on October 29 that one of the defendants showed them a video of the assault, according to the document. University police then contacted the Salisbury Police Department.

“An investigation revealed that the victim was targeted due to his sexual preferences,” Salisbury Police said at the time. Police reviewed videos of the incident – recorded without the victim’s consent – from one of the defendants’ phones, charging documents obtained by CNN affiliate WJZ show.

Cell phone videos retrieved from a defendant’s phone led police to the victim and eventually to additional suspects, according to the document.

The alleged assault is “truly horrifying,” Salisbury University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre said in a November statement to the student body.

“Acts of violence toward LGBTQ+ and Ally communities are not only destructive but at odds with the principles of community, respect, and belonging that bind us together as a university,” Lepre said. “These actions do not reflect the SU that I know and love. A place where everyone should feel safe and free from harm. A place where violence is unacceptable.”

Attorneys representing students say it was not a hate crime

Multiple attorneys for the suspects have said further details will make clear the incident is not related to the victim’s sexual orientation.

“We have said since the very beginning that this was not a hate crime, not in any regard,” lawyer Tom Maronick, who is representing one of the students whose hate crime charge was dropped, told CNN on Sunday. “This was something where the alleged victim coincidentally happened to be gay. But the alleged facts are that the victim, the purported victim, went to the room of someone who’s 16 seeking to have sexual contact with that person.”

“Now, the age of consent in Maryland is 16, but this is still someone who can’t even vote in the country,” Maronick added.

Maronick said he agreed with the state’s decision to dismiss the hate crime charge and reduce the other charges to misdemeanors.

“Let me just set the record straight – this is not a hate crime,” lawyer Steve Rakow, who is representing one of the other students, said in an earlier statement in November, adding his client intends to plead not guilty.

Another suspect’s lawyer, James L. Britt, also said that the incident had no correlation to the victim’s sexual orientation.

“Once all of the facts see the light of day, this case will be shown to be an ill-advised attempt to expose someone willing to travel to have sexual relations with a 16-year-old child,” Britt told the Baltimore Banner last month.

Some of those students were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which has been placed on suspension, the university said.

The fraternity expelled the members involved after learning of the allegations and reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident, it said.

“These individuals’ actions do not align with the values of our organization,” a statement from the fraternity in November reads. “Sigma Alpha Epsilon condemns hate and violence in any form, and we are disappointed that members of our chapter were involved in such an act.”

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