Somerville Police decline to press hate crimes charges

The Somerville Police Department announced Jan. 15 that it will not pursue hate crimes charges against Richard Malloy, a Methuen man who a group of lesbians claim followed them to a friend's apartment in Somerville last November, shouted homophobic slurs at them and assaulted them. In a statement the department said that after an investigation, detectives determined that there was no evidence to find probable cause to charge Malloy with a civil rights violation.

The women who allege that they were the target of a hate crime, including Lisa Daloia, a lesbian from north of Boston who is working with the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project to push for hate crimes charges against Malloy, claim that Malloy and his sister began shouting anti-gay slurs at them in a Somerville Dunkin Donuts, then followed them back to one of the women's apartment a few blocks away. Daloia claims Malloy attacked them and briefly knocked her unconscious. But police claim surveillance video from the Dunkin Donuts, which did not include audio, shows that Malloy did not threaten the women.

"Specifically, it does not appear that the alleged perpetrator verbally confronted or physically assaulted anyone due to the alleged victim's membership in a protected class. Some allegations made by the complaining parties are in direct contradiction with each other and the surveillance video," wrote the police in the statement. "Specifically, the behavior of the alleged perpetrator at no time appeared to be threatening, abusive or otherwise remarkable in any way. By all witness accounts, the alleged perpetrator did not assault or threaten anyone inside Dunkin' Donuts."

Police also say there was evidence that several of the parties involved committed misdemeanor assaults, including one of the women in the group of lesbians, who threw hot chocolate at Malloy and his sister. In Bay Windows's original story on the incident one of the lesbians, a woman named Laura who declined to use her last name, said she threw hot chocolate at Malloy in self-defense.

Neither Daloia nor Malloy returned a call to comment for this story.

Don Gorton, chair of the Anti-Violence Project, said he will work with Daloia to send a letter to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone urging his office to investigate the incident and review the police's findings. He said that in hate crimes investigations there are specific bias indicators that police should use to make a determination, and he does not believe Somerville Police used those in this case.

"They didn't seem to see the importance of bias indicators in making the determination that a hate crime has occurred," said Gorton.