Police not ruling out possibility hate crime was staged (Nebraska Fairy Tale Begins to Unravel)

Lincoln Journal Star ^ | July 25, 2012 | JONATHAN EDWARDS

[PJ-Comix]

Police continue to investigate Sunday’s reported hate crime but say they haven’t ruled out the possibility that the 33-year-old woman staged the attack.

Chief Jim Peschong told the Journal Star investigators were not certain an attack took place, but he said Tuesday it was too early to tell whether the attack was a hoax. Police have no suspects, the chief said.

Capt. Jim Davidsaver said later the FBI had joined the investigation, and an agent was at the department Tuesday.

A 33-year-old Near South woman told police three masked men burst into her house Sunday morning, bound her with zip ties, carved anti-gay slurs into her skin and tried to light her house on fire, according to the woman’s friend, who spoke to the Journal Star on Sunday.

Lincoln attorney Megan Mikolajczyk told the Journal Star she was representing the woman who reported the crime, but she said her client did not wish to make a statement Tuesday evening.

“When she first told me about it, it seemed far-fetched and hard to believe,” said Dawn Thorfinnson, another friend who said she met the victim of the reported crime two months ago.

“It’s entirely understandable (police) are not ready to believe something this horrid would happen, and it would actually be almost better if it never did,” she added. “I would hate to find out anything that she said wasn’t actually real.”

Thorfinnson said she thought her friend was telling the truth. She is a good person and staging a brutal attack and then lying about it to an entire community would be out of character, Thorfinnson said.

“That would shock me. I know enough about (her) that I know this is not at all something she’d be capable of doing.”

According to Thorfinnson, the woman’s attackers told her they targeted her after watching her perform with a 5-year-old girl during Omaha’s Gay Pride Parade on June 30. The woman lip-synced Elton John’s “Your Song” while the child danced in a tutu.

During the festivities, the woman was named to a position of prominence, Thorfinnson said. She wanted to champion tolerance and make the world a better place for future generations of gays and lesbians.

“It’s really sad she was attacked for being with kids when it’s the children she’s really focused on,” Thorfinnson said. “That’s why she wanted to do any event during Pride where we’re raising kids in a world of acceptance and tolerance instead of hate.”

Supporters have set up several fundraisers to help the woman, and well-wishers donated money for the woman’s recovery in various ways, Thorfinnson said. They include donation jars at several Lincoln Blockbuster stores; a fundraiser at The Q, a Lincoln gay bar; and websites of such LGBT organizations as Outlinc, Star City Pride and Heartland Pride.

“It’s absolutely fantastic so many people have stepped up,” said Tyler Richard, president of Outlinc. Richard declined to give a dollar figure, instead referring the Journal Star to Mikolajczyk.

[MEGoody]

I’d prefer a law which requires the perpetrator of such a hoax get double the prison sentence that a person found guilty of the claimed hate crime would receive.

[Future Snake Eater]

it’s the children she’s really focused on

Of that I have no doubt.

[cripplecreek]

Looking forward to the DUmmie reaction to this.

[jimmygrace]

“You left out the part where gasoline was supposedly poured on her walls and set afire causing...only $200 worth of damage.”

Luckily for her, the fire just happened to miss anything that she wasn’t going to get rid of anyway.

[Erasmus]

Or, as Nick once put it, “Her story had more holes in it than Albert Hall.”

[scottjewell]

Thanks so much for posting this!
There were SO many red flags from the first moment:

1. Tied up with zip ties on the wrists only, allowing quick freedom.
2. 3 masked men but no forced entry
3. fire put out immediately with little damage
4. Overly neat spray paint in the basement

I hope she pays for wasting the time of the police and the FBI, not to mention 911 and her neighbor at 4 am, plus the hundreds who attended vigil and the national support and donations. What a scammer.

[listenhillary]

There were some at DU urging caution about believing this story. I guess if they get burned often enough, even DU’ers learn to not touch the hot stove.

[scottjewell]

I agree. Now THAT would be justice.

[chesley]

The only thing really surprising about these "hate crime" stories is that the perpetrators continue to think they can get away with faking it and they NEVER do.

They never get away with it, true. But they never pay the price that they are trying to make someone else pay, or that someone would pay who stole the amount of money that these useless and wasted investigations cost would.

Until they do, they will continue to happen.

[jeffc]

I read your DUmmies post about this yesterday. You were completely on target. (I still don't know how you can read their drivel. I like to laugh at liberal's musings, too, but I need to shower afterwards. Twice after visiting DU!) Your editing them and adding commentary, then posting it here helps a lot, so I thank you immensely for your service!

Faking a hate crime should be a hate crime.

[PJ-Comix]

The newspaper headline could also read: “POLICE NOT RULING OUT COMPLETE IDIOCY.”

[arderkrag]

I wonder how long anesthetics stay in the blood stream? I wonder if the cops have thought to do a complete blood/tissue check for foreign substances?

[arasina]

“It’s really sad she was attacked for being with kids when it’s the children she’s really focused on,” Thorfinnson said. “That’s why she wanted to do any event during Pride where we’re raising kids in a world of acceptance and tolerance instead of hate.”

Since when is intolerance the equivalent of hate?

[j_tull]

“It’s really sad she was attacked for being with kids when it’s the children she’s really focused on,”

I'll be she is.

[Trailerpark Badass]

I would think that males would be much more likely to attack male homosexuals.

Lesbos, meh.

[CodeToad]

Homosexuals are mentally retarded. This, as you say, was easily predicted the day the story broke.

[JoeDetweiler]

If she takes even one cent of the money that’s being raised to help her then I hope they will be able to add some sort of fraud charges to whatever else they hit her with.

[JoeDetweiler]

This reminded me of a story from a couple of months ago that I saw here on FR....

‘Kill the Gay’: Lesbian Couple Charged After Allegedly Faking Hate Crime

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2885969/posts

I never saw any follow-up so I decided to look, and voila:

“A gay couple accused of staging a hate crime they blamed on neighbors has pleaded guilty to one of the charges against them......pleaded guilty to one count of false reporting and were sentenced to 12 months of probation...”

http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/parker/news/couple-pleads-guilty-to-faking-hate-crime/article_5e3bdaba-c226-11e1-bc6a-001a4bcf887a.html

[dog breath]

I would think a real hate crime would be simpler and less elaborate. A simple beating or simply killing her would be more believable. I am not really sure who would have it in for lesbians that much, I have read of gay men who have been beaten up but never a woman. There was a kid in my high school who was openly gay 40 years ago, long before it became acceptable. He got in fights all the time with some of the jocks, I figure by the time he graduated he was one of the toughest fighters around. Aside from that one individual while I have read of the occasional assault of a gay they seem more like the targeting of easy marks for robbery.

[huldah1776]

soon as i read the headline I thought fake.