Arrest Sought in St. Maarten Gay Attack

Arrest Sought in St. Maarten Gay Attack

Monday, April 17, 2006

A gay New Yorker who was beaten with a tire iron on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten returned here to urge authorities to arrest the "well-known punks" who harmed him and a friend.
Journalists Dick Jefferson, 51, and Ryan Smith, 25, both New Yorkers, were outside a bar with several friends April 6 when three men attacked them. Jefferson, who said the attackers had yelled anti-gay slurs at his friends earlier that evening, has faulted local authorities for not speaking to witnesses the night of the crime or pursuing leads.
"The people who harmed us are well-known punks," he told reporters on his return visit to the island April 14. "People in the community know who these guys are. They are not talking to the police. The entire island is watching something bad happening."
St. Martin Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein said several people have come forward with information and his office was investigating the response time of police officers who went to the crime scene.
Smith and Jefferson, a senior broadcast producer for CBS' national evening news, were airlifted for medical treatment to Miami.
Jefferson, who has been released, said Smith was being treated for brain damage.
Justice would be served "if the men that did this are caught, incarcerated and prosecuted and if when I visit St. Maarten, or my friends that live here, tell me that they are not afraid to go out at night," Jefferson said after meeting with local authorities and the U.S. consul general for the Netherlands Antilles.