A man who reported to police that he was beaten early Sunday morning because he was gay—and identified his attackers—has admitted he made up the story.
Joseph Baken, 22, pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to making a false report to law enforcement, after authorities received a video showing him trying to do a backflip off off the sidewalk and slamming his face on the curb.
Originally, Baken had told police three men had beaten him outside a local eatery at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning after he asked where to find a gay bar. “The decision to file criminal charges was due in part to the sense of fear and anger that quickly developed after Baken had identified a specific business and possible suspects in his allegations,” said Missoula Police Lt. Scott Brodie.
Reports of the the alleged attack—and photos of Baken’s badly bruised face—surfaced on Huffington Post and other sites, causing outrage in Montana’s LGBT community and calls for sexual orientation to be added to the state’s bias law.
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“The city of Missoula should be proud of the way it responded, and we will continue to work toward including assaults that target Montanans based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in the legal definition of hate crimes in our state,” said Montana Human Rights Network’s Jamee Greer.
Meanwhile, is nothing being done about the epidemic of homophobic sidewalks?
Brian
This little idiot twat! This is akin to a girl falsely screaming rape. This town may have a real problem with gay bashing but this guy just made it more difficult for victims everywhere because he decided to lie. He should be ashamed of himself!
doug105
@Brian: agreed and there seems to be just too much of this in the headlines this year.
sfbeast
idiot. he gets the tawana brawley prize of 2012.
Jamie
@Brian: Agree wtih Brian 100%. This is awful. Why would someone do this!?
SearchCz
I love Missoula, and was shocked to hear about this attack. No happiness in hearing that it was a false claim … but at least I canhold on to my fond memories of that town?
Drew
How hard is it to link a source these days? This news is everywhere around the internet and the only evidence anybody shows me is that video that is too blurry to see if it’s really him.
FYI
He should do six months community service at a shelter for battered women, gays and other victims of assualt. Also, you know what happened to the little boy who falsely cried wolf too many times — in other words, I shudder to think what would happen if he really got gay-bashed for real and no one believed him. Be careful because Karma is a bitch sometimes. What goes around, comes around and it could bite you in the ass someday (and not in a good way either).
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Fucking moron. What the hell was his motivation for doing this? Attention? Did he think he was helping the gay community? Gay bashings will be dismissed by anti-gay bigots by them presenting this case as evidence that we lie about assaults.
Ogre Magi
What a rat
I won't grow up
This little chickenf**ker deserves to be procecuted, what a douche.
Randall Reynolds
Very lame.
mattsy
He deserves a real gay bashing now…… from the gays!!
Chuck
Why do idiots like this have to make the rest of us look bad? They should have been eliminated from the gene pool.
Lifer
Looks like Queerty has found its Douche of the Week!
JustMe
This is a shame. False claims like this take away validity from the very real, very relevant issue of anti-LGBT violence in this country and around the world.
PTBoat
@Brian: There really should be serious penalties for both this and false rape accusations. It undermines the veracity of real victim’s stories.
James
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.baken
jack
He is beneath contempt. He is like the women who falsely cry rape. They undermine the credibility of those who have really been victims of abuse.