Somerville mayor, state rep investigating police response to alleged gay bashing

As Bay Windows went to press Nov. 28, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and state Rep. Carl Sciortino of Medford were scheduled to meet with the victims of an alleged gay-bashing who are claiming that Somerville Police did not take their complaints about the alleged assault seriously.

During the early morning hours of Nov. 18, a group of five lesbians were allegedly assaulted by a Somerville man, who allegedly followed the women home from a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, where the two groups had clashed after the man allegedly shouted homophobic slurs at the women. The alleged assault left one of the women briefly unconscious and resulted in the alleged perpetrator's sister being transported by ambulance to Somerville Hospital. Somerville police responded to a 911 call from one of the alleged victims, but declined to pursue and arrest the alleged assailant because they considered the incident to be a simple assault.

"If it's a simple assault and battery not in the presence of a police officer there's no right of arrest. ... Based upon what it says [in the incident report] there's no right of arrest, but the parties were informed of who he was so they could [make] a complaint," Captain Paul Upton, a spokesman for the Somerville Police, told Bay Windows this week.

Sciortino confirmed that he, Curtatone and the mayor's LGBT liaison, Antoinette Currie, planned to meet with some of the alleged victims Nov. 28.

"Obviously this is something I take very seriously, and I expect there to be a thorough investigation of the incident itself and of how the police department is responding to the allegations," said Sciortino.

Tom Champion, a spokesperson for Curtatone, said the mayor wants to talk with the alleged victims about what happened and assure them that the city is taking their allegations seriously.

"He wants to meet with them and get additional information about their experiences and to assure them ... that we take these incidents very seriously and that we're conducting a fresh follow-up investigation that encompasses not only what occurred that night [with respect to the alleged hate crime] but also the procedures that were followed by the officer," said Champion.

According to the police incident report, a 911 call came in around 2 a.m. It describes the incident as an assault and battery involving one male fighting with three females. It also notes that police responded by advising the parties of their rights and giving each party the other's personal information. It mentions that one woman was transported to the hospital.

Lisa Deloia, who said she was briefly knocked unconscious during the alleged attack, said that Methuen resident Richard Malloy shouted homophobic slurs at her and her friends while they waited in line at the Dunkin' Donuts at the corner of Medford Street and Broadway in Somerville, then followed the group back to one woman's home a block away and continued shouting at them. When they told him to leave, Daloia claims he turned violent, attacking them and knocking her unconscious. Malloy allegedly fled before the police arrived, but police learned his identity from his sisters, who were also on the scene.

Malloy did not return a call to comment for this story, but one of his sisters, Cassey Malloy, who is herself a lesbian, disputed the women's claim that her brother attacked them. She said that while she was not an eyewitness to the altercation (she arrived after the alleged assault took place after her sister Shannon Malloy called her to tell her what was going on), her brother told her that the women attacked him and Shannon when he was walking Shannon back to her car. Cassey said the women threw hot chocolate on Richard and Shannon and that Shannon was treated at Somerville Hospital for second-degree burns on her chest and face.

Daloia told Bay Windows that Somerville Police made no effort to pursue and arrest Richard Malloy, and she claimed the officer on the scene told them to file charges against him on their own in Somerville District Court. Two of the women, Daloia and Laura, a woman who lives west of Boston who declined to use her last name both because she is not entirely open about her sexual orientation and due to concerns about her safety, have called on Somerville Police to do their own investigation into the incident as a potential hate crime. At their urging, Somerville Police assigned the case to the Detective Bureau for further investigation, Upton said. The case has also been assigned to the Professional Standards Unit to determine whether officers at the scene acted appropriately.

Daloia said the group first encountered Malloy at Somerville's On the Hill Tavern, where the group had gone at around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 after a concert. The group included Daloia, who lives north of Boston, Laura, Jill McKenzie of New Hampshire, Rebecca Felhazy, who lives a block away from the tavern on Charles E. Ryan Road, and a fifth woman who Daloia said wishes to remain anonymous because she is not out. Daloia said Malloy, Cassey and Shannon were sitting in another section of the bar, and she briefly noticed Malloy pointing her and her friends out to his sisters. She ignored him, and there was no direct interaction between the two groups in the bar.

In separate interviews with Bay Windows, Laura, McKenzie and Felhazy said they could not recall seeing Malloy in the bar. Cassey Malloy confirmed that she and her siblings were in the bar while Daloia and her friends were there, but she said there was no interaction whatsoever between the two groups.

At around 1:30 a.m. the women left the bar and headed across the street to Dunkin' Donuts, where they waited in line for coffee and a late night snack. After standing in line for a few minutes the women said they heard a man behind them making anti-gay comments. They turned around and saw Malloy, along with his sister, Shannon.

"I confronted him and I asked, 'What was your problem?' ... He said, 'Mind your own business, turn around and order your own food, you effing lesbian,'" said Felhazy.

"[I remember] him calling Lisa a 'fucking lesbian' and then saying that he saw us and had been watching us all night, that kind of thing. Words were exchanged, I said stuff back, basically, 'Dude, are you kidding me right now?'" said Laura.

All four of the women who spoke with Bay Windows said Malloy loudly spelled out the word "lesbian," and let loose a stream of anti-gay slurs and taunts. Daloia said he seemed drunk. The women said they got their food and drinks and left the store, but they claim Malloy continued shouting at them as they walked out the door.

Cassey Malloy said she had separated from her siblings before they went to Dunkin' Donuts, and she is not sure what occurred between her siblings and Daloia's friends.

The women said they walked back to Felhazy's apartment, where Daloia, Laura, and the unnamed friend went up to use the bathroom before getting on the road to head home. McKenzie said she planned to stay overnight at Felhazy's apartment. When Daloia, Laura, and the unnamed friend went downstairs to go to their cars they claim they found Malloy and Shannon waiting outside.

"He ended up getting into my face and exchanging words with me," said Laura, adding that Malloy threatened to kill them. "He called me a 'fucking cunt.' ... He pushed me and ended up punching me in the face twice."

The unnamed friend quickly called upstairs to Felhazy, who ran down and called 911 on her cell phone. Daloia, the unnamed friend and Shannon tried to restrain him, Daloia said, and the man became increasingly violent, flailing his arms and throwing the unnamed friend into the side of a car. Laura said she threw her hot chocolate on Malloy in self-defense when he attacked her, but that did not stop him. At one point during the confrontation Daloia said he grabbed her and hit her four to five times on the forehead and the side of her jaw, knocking her unconscious.

Felhazy said once Daloia hit the ground the attacker ran away, heading back down the street towards the tavern and the Dunkin' Donuts. Both she and Malloy's sister Shannon ran after him, but Malloy disappeared behind the CVS on the corner of Medford and Broadway. Felhazy said she did not want to risk confronting him in the dark behind the store. Felhazy flagged down a police car heading up Medford Street that had been heading toward the apartment.

Both Felhazy and Cassey Malloy said that Shannon had an asthma attack shortly before the officers arrived, and the police called an ambulance for her. It's unclear when Shannon called her sister, but Cassey said she arrived at the scene before the ambulance came for her sister. Cassey provided police information about her brother's identity, but she told the officer that she believed he was the victim in the altercation.

Cassey, who said she has been out to her brother for about 10 years, said she doesn't believe the alleged victims' version of what happened.

"My brother is very supportive. He is not at all a gay-basher in any way, shape or form. ... I find it very, very hard to believe that my brother would attack women, first of all, and that he would attack lesbians. I find that to be ridiculous," said Cassey.

Cassey added that when she saw her sister at the scene of the incident that night and her brother later on, they were both soaked in hot chocolate. She said her sister was treated at the hospital both for her asthma attack and for second-degree burns from the hot cocolate. Her brother did not seek medical treatment for burns.

Cassey said her siblings have told her that Malloy had been walking Shannon to her car on Charles E. Ryan Road, which by chance happened to be parked in front of Felhazy's apartment. When they reached the car they saw Daloia and her friends standing outside, and the women attacked them, throwing hot chocolate at them.

After the ambulance took Shannon to the hospital, the officers and Felhazy returned to the apartment, and Daloia said the officers asked her and Laura if they needed medical attention, but they declined. After the alleged attack Daloia said she just wanted to go home. Daloia said one of the officers on the scene told them they could not arrest Malloy because it was unclear which party was the aggressor and that it was his word against theirs.

"I said, 'It's not words. You see us. We're all beat up.' ... He kept saying he couldn't arrest him because it was our words against his," said Daloia. She said they explained that Malloy had repeatedly directed anti-gay slurs at them and that they believed the assault was a hate crime, but the officer continued to tell them it was their words against his. She said the officer provided them with Malloy's personal information and urged them to file charges against him themselves at Somerville District Court.

Daloia said she and Laura went to the hospital after the police left, but the hospital found the altercation had caused no serious damage. Daloia said she had bruises across her face, and Laura said she had bruises on her face and her knees and had a swollen kneecap.

The next morning Daloia and Laura filed a complaint against Malloy in Somerville District Court, but Daloia said they felt that the police themselves should have gotten involved and arrested him. They contacted Don Gorton, chair of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, who advised them to withdraw the complaint and pressure Somerville Police to press charges against Malloy for assault and an anti-gay hate crime. Daloia formally withdrew the charges Nov. 26.

When asked whether police would have had the right to arrest Malloy if they believed the incident was a hate crime, Upton declined to speculate. "We still have to determine what the officers knew and when they knew it," he said.

The lead officer on the scene, Officer Robert Driscoll, was off duty until midnight Nov. 28, after Bay Windows went to press.