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Lesbians On Trial For Beating Up Straight Man
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 12, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 12, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Remember when a filmmaker claimed that a group of lesbians attacked him outside the IFC Center last summer? And it was revealed that the women felt they were defending themselves, with one woman saying, "I admit I did cut him one time for my own safety"? Well, the case has made it to court.
Manhattan prosecutors say that Dwayne Buckle was viciously attacked - he was stabbed, punched, and kicked - by Patreese Johnson, Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, and Renata Hill. Buckle claims that he was simply trying to say hello to Johnson, but then the women attacked him.
However, the women claim that Buckle called them "f---ing dykes," spat on them, threw a cigarette on them, and told one, "I'll f--- you straight, sweetheart." The Post reports that Buckle grabbed the throat of one woman, which was caught on a surveillance camera. Naturally, Buckle denies he said that, but he did say some other things:
Buckle told a different story on the stand, assigning many of his alleged attackers monikers.
There was Brown, the one he admittedly called an "elephant." Then there was the one with the "low haircut," do-rag and wife-beater T-shirt, whom he admittedly called "a man," and the "slightly pretty" one to whom he first said hello.
It all started, he said, when the first two walked by. "They looked effeminate [sic] and one of them was slightly pretty, so I said 'hi' to them," he said.
But the "heavier girl, she started to dog me out," Buckle said.
"What does that, perchance, mean," asked the judge, Justice Edward McLaughlin. "Just disrespect me," Buckle explained. Then "more girls started coming out of nowhere."
Buckle also admitted that he told one woman she looked "like a man." Classy! Side note: Judge McLaughlin sounds like a character, because when Buckle explained he was upset that one of the women called his sneakers cheap when they were actually $100 dollars, McLaughlin said, "Then they weren't Stephon Marburys."
Johnson, who admitted she "cut him one time," is charged with attempted murder, while the three other women are charged with gang assault. Their lawyers say that Buckle was actually stabbed with another person from the street who joined the women. And the NY Times reports that three of the women's friends have already pleaded guilty to attempted assault and were sentenced to six months in jail and give year's probation.
Related: The Village Voice's cover story this week is about the emergence of "thug"-like lesbians. And that stretch of Sixth Avenue near West 4th is like a Hellmouth - it's also where the KFC/Taco Bell of the Rats is.
Photograph of the IFC Center by The Reeler
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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