Auburn University freshman Caleb Moore, two University of Wisconsin freshmen, and a Purdue University freshman are facing felony charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property as hate crimes.

The students allegedly vandalized the dorm room door of a UW student and LGBT liaison in Ogg Hall Dec. 21, according to court documents. Moore and the Purdue freshman were visiting high school friends at UW.

If convicted, Chamberlain, Cochacki and Moore could each face up to three years in prison and $20,000 in fines. Riha faces an additional charge of obstructing an officer. This charge came from repeated changes to his story to UWPD Detective Carol Ann Glassmaker, the criminal complaint states.

What did they do? Spit on a door, yelled profanities, tore down gay poster. In Wisconsin, that’s a felony.

When contacted late Wednesday night, the alleged victim declined comment on the December incident, and asked The Badger Herald to protect his anonymity.

“This is a blatant case of hitting a mosquito with a concrete brick. This is as over-charged a case as I’ve ever seen,” said Stephen Meyer, who represents Moore.

Police said the incident occurred after a night of drinking.

The men are accused of gathering outside the dorm room of a male student who is one of two gay and lesbian liaisons for the university’s housing system and shouting anti-gay slurs and expletives.

Someone also tore down photographs of homosexual couples and posters promoting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Campus Center that were outside the room. Someone also spat on his door and wrote an anti-gay statement in marker on a bulletin board outside the room.

The student chased three men to another floor of the dorm, but they refused to give him their names, police said. He called police about 10 hours after the incident, police said.

Glassmaker said the student was traumatized by the attack.

“He was very nervous and very scared,” she said.

In response to the alleged crime, the LGBT campus center intends to show a documentary called “License to Kill,” a collection of interviews with men who are in prison for murdering homosexuals.

Chamberlain, from Crystal Lake, Ill., later confessed to writing this, the complaint states.

“I tore down a picture, I was showing off and saw a picture of two guys kissing,” Chamberlain was quoted in the complaint. “I am conservative and had a problem with it. Why does the photo have to be displayed in public? Keep it to yourself. I tore it down.”

The complaint stated the defendants went back three times to tear other LGBT posters down, and that all four were involved with the incident.

Were it not for the hate crime enhancers added, the disorderly conduct offenses would not be felonies.

According to Wisconsin law, a case can be tried as a hate crime if the defendants intentionally selected the person with whom the crime was committed because of belief about sexual orientation, whether or not the perception was correct.

UW newspaper story

Chicago Tribune story

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 1:29 pm and is filed under State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.