Thaindian News

October 11, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): A gang of eight suspects were arraigned in NYC on Sunday for perpetrating hate crimes in the city.

The charges leveled against them were multiple and included possession of weapons, unlawful imprisonment, robbery, assault as well as physical and sexual abuse. The victims included two young boys in their teens along with a 30 year old man.

A majority of the accused were 17 years of age with Idelfonso Mendez and Elmer Confresi being 23 and David Rivera, 21. Judge Harold Adler of Bronx Criminal Court set the bail at $100,000 for Piters and Carabello, the defendants. The others were held without the convenience of a fixed bail amount.

The police revealed that all eight of the defendants had been charged as adults which included the teenagers. None of them have entered a plea at the arraignment. Meanwhile, Ruddy Vargas-Perez, a 22 year old has been identified as the ninth suspect. He is yet to be taken into custody and remains at large.

The Commissioner of New York City police, Ray Kelly said that three of the victims had been held captive in a vacant apartment and been beaten mercilessly. Two of them had also been sodomized. Another victim was robbed and manhandled by the Latin King Goonies, a street gang formed by the accused.

The attacks started when a 17 year old teenaged boy wanted to be a member but was discovered to have had sex with a man. He was beaten while his assailants chanted anti gay slogans. He was sodomized as well and threatened with dire consequences to his family if he reported the crime.

The hate crime force of NYC took over the cases when the number of similar incidences started increasing. They finally tracked the suspects and captured them with the help of the Bronx Special Victims Squad and the Bronx Gang Division.