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This morning I am announcing the filing of felony assault and malicious harassment charges against two defendants for their savage and unprovoked beating of a man in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle last month. The defendants are charged with assault in the first degree with a deadly weapon, and malicious harassment. The investigation in this case is ongoing and may yield evidence to permit charges against one other suspect. That individual, a juvenile, has been arrested, but has not yet been charged. The evidence shows that in the early morning hours of June 27th that Michah Painter was walking home from a club when the defendants, who were in a pickup truck, stopped and yelled insults at him, because they thought he was gay. The victim heard the insults and saw one of the defendants give him an obscene hand gesture. He replied in turn. At that point, we allege that defendant Vadim Samusenko got out of the truck with a glass vodka bottle in his hand and ran up to the victim. Defendant Samusenko asked the victim if he was gay, and when the victim said he was, the defendant broke the end of the bottle against a wall and attacked the victim with the sharp broken glass. The defendant thrust the broken bottle at the victim’s neck, but the victim was able to grab the defendant by the wrist to avoid being stabbed in the neck or face. The victim was struggling against defendant Samusenko when the other defendants came onto the scene and began to kick and punch the victim. During the course of the beating, one or more of the defendants told the victim he was going to die. The victim suffered numerous stab wounds to his face and back. The full extent of his injuries will not be known for a while. If convicted as charged, the defendants face a standard range of 12 and 1/2 to 15 and 1/2 years. The purpose of the malicious harassment law is to deter and punish precisely the kind of behavior alleged in this case: random violence committed with the intent to intimidate or injure a member of a discrete group. Historically, these laws were designed to protect the liberty of racial and religious minorities from violence and intimidation at the hands of those who would not accept that the law guaranteed them equal rights and freedoms. Violence toward individual members of these groups undermined the efforts to create a fair and just society for all Americans. Our state’s malicious harassment law was expanded in 1993 to include protection of victims who were selected for attack because of their perceived sexual orientation. It provides an additional criminal charge as a way to punish random violence targeted against members of the gay and lesbian community. In this case, the addition of the malicious harassment charge would add an additional 31 to 37 months on to the sentence for assault in the first degree. It is disturbing to all of us that here, in 2004, we can still witness a hate-based crime like this. As outraged as we are about the violence and bigotry of a few, we can also find comfort in the reaction of the many to this ugly incident. In particular, I want to note: The victim’s courage in coming forward to tell his story; The support of the larger community for the victim and in defense of our values of diversity and tolerance; The extraordinary work of the Seattle Police Department, and it’s Chief Gil Kerlikowske. There was never a doubt that this brutal crime would receive the attention that it deserved. There was never a doubt that the police would track down the assailants. Now it is our turn, as prosecutors, to present this case to a jury and ask for justice. For more information, see: Assault and Malicious Harassment Charges Filed in Hate Crime Dated July 16, 2004 |
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