More On Latin King Goonies' Alleged Anti-Gay Attacks

The police's announcement that seven members of the Latin King Goonies were arrested for torturing three men, apparently for being gay, offered horrifying details of the crimes. Now, there are more details about the cruel attacks which City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called "appalling and are even more despicable because the victims were clearly targeted in acts of hate simply because they are gay."

On Sunday at 3:30 a.m., nine Latin King Goonies allegedly dragged a 17-year-old—who hoped to join the gang—into an abandoned house at 1910 Osborne Place, stripped him, slashed with a box cutter, beaten with a beer can, demanded to know the name of a 30-year-old man he slept with, and then sodomized him with a toilet plunger. They let him go, but allegedly threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the attack; the victim went to the hospital but only said he was jumped and robbed.

Then, at 8:30 p.m., the suspects grabbed another 17-year-old who also admitted to having sex with the same 30-year-old man, also beating and sodomizing this teen as well as robbing him. They kept this victim while luring the 30-year-old to the apartment, claiming there was a party. The 30-year-old arrived with 10 tall cans of the malt liquor Four Loko. According to the NY Times:

The attackers forced the man to strip to his underwear and tied him to a chair, the police said. [The second teen victim] was still there, and the “Goonies” ordered him to attack the man. The teenager hit him in the face and burned him with a cigarette on his nipple and penis as the others jeered and shouted gay slurs, the police said. Then the attackers whipped the man with a chain and sodomized him with a small baseball bat. The beatings and robberies went on for hours...

The attackers forced the man to drink all 10 cans of liquor — each about twice the size of a can of beer, with a higher alcohol content, 10 percent to 12 percent, according to Four Loko’s Web site.

While the man was held captive and attacked, five of the Latin King Goonies went to his house, which he shared with his 40-year-old brother. Using a key taken from the 30-year-old to get inside, they found his brother in bed. They pulled a blanket over his head and hit him, demanding money. When he refused, one placed a cellphone to the brother’s ear, and he heard the voice of his younger brother, who said he had been kidnapped and who pleaded, “Give them the money.”

The brother complied. The men took $1,000 in cash, two debit cards and a 52-inch television.

On Monday, the brother, after freeing himself, called the police. Cops actually saw the 30-year-old victim in his apartment building, "passed out on the landing from the alcohol he had consumed," but didn't question him, since they had no idea about the torture. But they found out a little about the incident upon a second visit to the apartment to inquire about the robbery. In the meantime, police were trying to investigate the first victim's claim about being robbed near 1910 Osborne, but didn't have enough evidence for a search warrant. When the second victim went to the police on Tuesday, and offered the address (the Times says all victims were not initially "fully forthcoming, fearing reprisal and wanting to keep their lives a secret"), the police were able to obtain a warrant.

At the abandoned building, police found a cleaned-up and re-painted. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the suspects tried to clean things up, “Lots of bleach and paint were used to cover the blood shed by their tortured prey. they even poured bleach down the drains." Cops were able to retrieve some evidence, but the big tip was when an onlooker slipped the cops his number and later gave them the name of the alleged ringleader, Ildefonzo Mendez.

The Daily News says the house, "across the street from a public school," was dubbed the "Goonie House" by neighbors: "Gang members threw parties and had sex there. As many as a dozen pit bulls guarded the place. 'They'd have meets there every Friday,' said a 33-year-old woman too terrified to reveal her name. 'They're running crazy from there - hurting people, taking stuff. Latin Kings don't let gay people in their nation.'" Another resident told the Times that he was concerned when the group started to squat in the house—"From the start, you could tell they were trouble"—but his discussions with neighbors to do something about them went nowhere.
Mendez.

Mendez and six others, ages 16 to 22, are facing charges of unlawful imprisonment, abduction, assault, robbery, menacing and sodomy, all as hate crimes. Two other suspects are at large. A police source told the Daily News that the suspects were"still passing blame to one another last night" —"Nobody wants to take responsibility for the plunger. One guy is lying through his teeth."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 9, 2010 3:27 PM

Comments [rss]

Clarice City

They are some of the gayest men I have ever seen. The waxed eyebrows...good lord.

John L

Sick, sick, SICK!

And if sodomizing another man with a stick is not a homosexual act then I don't know what is. I wonder how Officer Volpe is doing.

"Mendez was charged with robbery in 2005 and with gun possession in 2007 and 2009, records show. Neighbors at his E. 197th St. building described Mendez rounding up friends to t orture a stray cat two months ago. "One of the cat's eyes was out and one of these [guys] was poking its eye socket with a stick," said the neighbor. "They were cheering like they just scored a touchdown."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/10/10/2010-10-10_members_of_bronx_gang_say_they_were_victims_themselves_torture_them_or_well_tort.html#ixzz11zBjDeAI

This guy is a monster!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was sickened by the accusations of violence "and saddened by the anti-gay bias." He should also be sickened by the fact that gangs are running amuck through these neighborhoods and terrorizing everyone, including gay people. He should really take this city's gang problem serious and do something about it.

“These suspects deployed terrible, wolf-pack odds of nine against one, which revealed them as predators whose crimes were as cowardly as they were despicable,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference. He should also be sickened by his police commissioner's cluelessness.

Oh and not to ruin the party here, but a 30 year old praying on the neighborhood's teens and bringing 10 cans Four Loko (aka "Liquid Crack") to seduce more teen victims is not probably the best case to champion for gay rights. I think this man if anything helps fuel the stereotype that gays are sex crazed deviants, looking to transform others to homosexuality. But I'm appalled by this man's behavior whether he did it to seduce male or female teens. There's plenty of legitimate cases like last week's Stonewall attack that a more suitable for our outrage.

But of course the real criminals here are these gang members and I'm glad they were apprehended and hopefully be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The good news is that a vicious gang was taken off the streets, too bad it took such a heinous crime for the NYPD to do it. It's really time for NYPD to start taking the city's gang problem serious, everyday more and more kids are joining and it's getting worse and worse.

justthinkin

From what I'm reading today, La Reina comes across as the local neighborhood pederast. His attackers were clearly psychopaths, but street justice is a bitch, especially if you choose to be a child-moleser in a Latino neighborhood.

jamjam33

I don't know why the police are stating that the Goonies are not a Latin King set.

It's true that in Allentown they are the predominant Latin King set (in the Lehigh Valley).

An upstart gang appropriating the Latin King name would not be a viable enterprise in the Bronx. I strongly suspect the Goonies (or the Looney Tunes as they are referred to in PA) are a Latin King set.

walzer

If I was a vampire they'd be the first ones to go hehehe

cybergrace

You are a sick hater. You are also probably a wife abuser.

fishbone

Illegal aliens run amok!

GREGORYABUTLER

Um, these guys are Puerto Ricans - and Puerto Rico has been a part of the United States since 1898!

ocm123

I highly doubt these guys are illegal aliens.

potsmoker

homothug gangbangers. theres a whole porn section for that

napalm

What's disturbing is that it seems as if the media (and their sheeple) is steady focused on the fact that the victim is gay (rather than human). Leading to believe that if not for that fact, we probably wouldn't be hearing about this at all

Såkandulæredet

agreed with napalm and petey.

ktinnyc

What's disturbing is the depth of your stupidity. The victims would not have been attacked if they weren't gay.

Petey

In a so rare instance, I'm going to have to agree with naplam on this one. If they didn't attack these 3 people because they were gay, they would have attacked 3 others because they were black, or white, or not part of the LK nation, or whatever reason these animals could think of to make up for their lack of ability to function in society like normal human beings.

sos4usas

This is what happens when latino thugs roam the streets after the public has been disarmed. If the gang thought that their victims who were gay might have been ready with self defense, judo, karate, even if they were armed with knives, pepperspray, anything, or a gun, it may have made them think twice. They were easy prey. Ofcourse this is where the gay people were tricked because the latin gang know how to disarm their victims with a lure to party.

Even the gays in my town are armed. They know that redneck guys want to kick their asses just cuz...and these gays will slit their throats/ shoot to kill and not blink an eye.

I cannot believe that in the Bronx, or a terribly dangerous US city like NY,Chicago,LA the mayors would want to disarm the citizens and put them in more danger of violent roaming gangs.

Guns and knives, pepperspray, kung fu, whatever you can do, should be promoted by the churches, not disarming yourselves and turning in a weapon for cash. Disgusts me...

Dogsbody

"If the gang thought that their victims who were gay might have been ready with self defense, judo, karate"

Eh? What made the gang think that the victims were NOT experts in karate already?? I get the impression you're trying to talk about gun rights, but I'm not sure what the hell karate and judo has to do with anything...

PaulaNYC

Conservative or other than liberal whiners not welcome here, I see....

Get your head out of your butt, moderator.

Jamie McDonald

If your definition of being "welcome" means that everyone has to agree with you, maybe.

PaulaNYC

Look at the bright side: the way these young men treat gay young men won't be at all indicative of the way that OTHER gay men will be be treated in the armed forces.

I mean, won't a crowded barracks with no privacy, an emphasis on uniformity, and a gung-ho attitude -- mostly with kids from working class white families from the South and West with strong religious beliefs --- won't that be just the right atmosphere for young gay men to come out in?

Mordicai

Wow, Paula, it takes a lot of guts to openly bad mouth "our troops." I mean, jeez, that is some pretty hateful stuff you are saying about the service people who are defending your rights overseas. Calling them all homophobes who are no better than criminals-- yikes-- is pretty appalling. I for one think our soldiers are more than capable of not being bigots. I think they might be happy to have, for instance, an Arabic translator, rather than not have one. I'm just saying.