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Department 26 at the Hall of Justice. I’ve spent too much time here in the last year. It’s where I served my jury duty before I got excused. Twice. It’s where I’ve watched the proceedings, mostly postponements, in the assault and hate crime trial of the man who beat up my friends.*
Jack Broughton plead guilty to the felony assault and hate crime charges on May 13, ending a 21 month legal ordeal. At the sentencing hearing, my friends finally got to tell the judge how the crime had affected them: the pain, the post traumatic stress disorder, the missed work, the fear, the personality changes, the clinical depression, the loss of freedom and safety, the inability to be present for family and children, etc. Despite the fact that other lawyers in the court, there for unrelated cases, were fighting back tears at this testimony the judge didn’t seem to care.
It’s truly a mark of the limits of identity politics when you have a lesbian judge presiding over a hate crime trial, a lesbian attorney defending the man pleading guilty to assault and hate crime charges, and a white, straight, guy prosecuting the case like he’s on a mission. My friends described the beating which, in addition to the serious emotional damage, left one bleeding and unconscious on 11th Street and the other with severe pain throughout her body. They contrasted the many ways they have been, and continue to be, held prisoners by the assault and the way in which Jack Broughton will not be. Because even though this was the sentencing hearing, everyone knew in advance what Broughton would get: home detention for a year and three years probation. No jail time whatsoever.
I’m not a fan of jail. I think it can be a finishing school for haters and abusers to learn new tricks. The concept of rehabilitation is more of a joke than anything despite the under-funded attempts by some. It’s also clear that if Jack Broughton wasn’t working class, the case against him would likely have ended very differently, My friends, also working class, had community resources** that Broughton didn’t, and a mostly clear cut case, but someone with the money to spend could have made this lengthy ordeal even worse.
So really it’s a question of punishment. It’s not so much that I don’t agree with the judge’s ruling that Broughton, and possibly society, will be better served by attending anger management classes at the VA and not going to jail. It’s the unfairness that he can continue with life when his victims could not. He can stay in touch with his children while my co-worker had to withdraw in many ways due to her depression. He can continue to work while both women he beat up had to take extra student loans due and drop work shifts due to their inability to function normally for months after the beating. He can still walk the streets in his large, strong body feeling safe in a way that my friends no longer can and in a way that would be unlikely if he was in jail.
In a tearful statement that became necessary after the moving testimony of the victims scared his defense attorney, Broughton blamed all of the events on alcohol and actually said, "I’m just so sorry so many other people had to be involved in my epiphany." Judge Kay Tsenin seemed to agree because when the prosecuting attorney asked that Broughton’s counseling include classes on sensitivity training, she said that the racist, anti-gay, and misogynist things he was yelling as he kicked my friend’s bleeding unconscious body were "the alcohol talking" and denied the motion.
Many observers felt the judge could use a little sensitivity training herself. The incident started when Broughton’s girlfriend*** hit one of my friends in the face and swung at her again, missing, but trying to do damage. My friend decked her and put her hands up to say, according to her testimony (from my memory) "ok enough". Judge Tsenin redefined this, for the record, as making a "safe" sign which seems like a celebratory thing to do. I honestly have no other interpretation for this but as the judge filing this away in her head as "something Those People must do after beating someone up", justifying her translation of this action into something which makes no sense whatsoever.
But at least it’s over. And it ended with more serious consequences than my friends feared at the beginning when the first DA dropped the hate crime charges and seemed reluctant to prosecute at all. Though he hurt them, in the end Broughton fucked with the wrong people. He attacked people who grew up in San Francisco, are rooted in their multicultural communities and families, and able to speak powerfully in their own defense. They and their friends**** were unwilling to let the case drop and put all the pressure they could manage on the DA and judges to not ignore what had happened.
Without that pressure, I doubt things would have gotten even this far.
*I wrote previous entries about this here and here . Seeming contradictions are explained by the defense attorney and the judge changing during the last 21 months.
** Community United Against Violence did an amazing job of support, legal consulting, and mobilizing people to attend trial dates. Anyone with extra money could do worse than donating there.
***Who, rumor has it, has pending domestic violence charges against him.
****I can’t remember the LJ name of the BAR reporter who was there for every moment of the legal proceedings, but this was the same person who took all those great pictures at City Hall of the weddings. Anyone?
Jack Broughton plead guilty to the felony assault and hate crime charges on May 13, ending a 21 month legal ordeal. At the sentencing hearing, my friends finally got to tell the judge how the crime had affected them: the pain, the post traumatic stress disorder, the missed work, the fear, the personality changes, the clinical depression, the loss of freedom and safety, the inability to be present for family and children, etc. Despite the fact that other lawyers in the court, there for unrelated cases, were fighting back tears at this testimony the judge didn’t seem to care.
It’s truly a mark of the limits of identity politics when you have a lesbian judge presiding over a hate crime trial, a lesbian attorney defending the man pleading guilty to assault and hate crime charges, and a white, straight, guy prosecuting the case like he’s on a mission. My friends described the beating which, in addition to the serious emotional damage, left one bleeding and unconscious on 11th Street and the other with severe pain throughout her body. They contrasted the many ways they have been, and continue to be, held prisoners by the assault and the way in which Jack Broughton will not be. Because even though this was the sentencing hearing, everyone knew in advance what Broughton would get: home detention for a year and three years probation. No jail time whatsoever.
I’m not a fan of jail. I think it can be a finishing school for haters and abusers to learn new tricks. The concept of rehabilitation is more of a joke than anything despite the under-funded attempts by some. It’s also clear that if Jack Broughton wasn’t working class, the case against him would likely have ended very differently, My friends, also working class, had community resources** that Broughton didn’t, and a mostly clear cut case, but someone with the money to spend could have made this lengthy ordeal even worse.
So really it’s a question of punishment. It’s not so much that I don’t agree with the judge’s ruling that Broughton, and possibly society, will be better served by attending anger management classes at the VA and not going to jail. It’s the unfairness that he can continue with life when his victims could not. He can stay in touch with his children while my co-worker had to withdraw in many ways due to her depression. He can continue to work while both women he beat up had to take extra student loans due and drop work shifts due to their inability to function normally for months after the beating. He can still walk the streets in his large, strong body feeling safe in a way that my friends no longer can and in a way that would be unlikely if he was in jail.
In a tearful statement that became necessary after the moving testimony of the victims scared his defense attorney, Broughton blamed all of the events on alcohol and actually said, "I’m just so sorry so many other people had to be involved in my epiphany." Judge Kay Tsenin seemed to agree because when the prosecuting attorney asked that Broughton’s counseling include classes on sensitivity training, she said that the racist, anti-gay, and misogynist things he was yelling as he kicked my friend’s bleeding unconscious body were "the alcohol talking" and denied the motion.
Many observers felt the judge could use a little sensitivity training herself. The incident started when Broughton’s girlfriend*** hit one of my friends in the face and swung at her again, missing, but trying to do damage. My friend decked her and put her hands up to say, according to her testimony (from my memory) "ok enough". Judge Tsenin redefined this, for the record, as making a "safe" sign which seems like a celebratory thing to do. I honestly have no other interpretation for this but as the judge filing this away in her head as "something Those People must do after beating someone up", justifying her translation of this action into something which makes no sense whatsoever.
But at least it’s over. And it ended with more serious consequences than my friends feared at the beginning when the first DA dropped the hate crime charges and seemed reluctant to prosecute at all. Though he hurt them, in the end Broughton fucked with the wrong people. He attacked people who grew up in San Francisco, are rooted in their multicultural communities and families, and able to speak powerfully in their own defense. They and their friends**** were unwilling to let the case drop and put all the pressure they could manage on the DA and judges to not ignore what had happened.
Without that pressure, I doubt things would have gotten even this far.
*I wrote previous entries about this here and here . Seeming contradictions are explained by the defense attorney and the judge changing during the last 21 months.
** Community United Against Violence did an amazing job of support, legal consulting, and mobilizing people to attend trial dates. Anyone with extra money could do worse than donating there.
***Who, rumor has it, has pending domestic violence charges against him.
****I can’t remember the LJ name of the BAR reporter who was there for every moment of the legal proceedings, but this was the same person who took all those great pictures at City Hall of the weddings. Anyone?
