Hate crime charges are being brought against Grossmont Collegestudent Mirek May for an incident that occurred during a San DiegoState University fraternity party at 11 p.m. on Oct. 31, 1999.
May was arraigned Jan. 13. He pleaded not guilty to verballyattacking and hitting SDSU Extended Studies student John (thevictim’s name has been changed to protect his identity) with a glassbottle at a Halloween party at the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house at5524 Hardy Avenue.
John suffered a broken jaw, bruised ribs and received stitches onhis forehead and chin.
May is charged with inflicting great bodily injury, assault with adeadly weapon and committing crimes motivated by hate. If convicted,May could face up to 10 years in prison.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 9.
John came to Sigma Alpha Mu’s Halloween party wearing only a blueSpeedo swimsuit — dressed as Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis,who is gay.
John said he had also smeared lipstick on his face to resembleblood, symbolizing Louganis’ injury on the diving board during the1998 Olympics.
Local media outlets The San Diego Union-Tribune and KGTV Channel10 have reported that John is gay, but Doug Case, SDSU coordinatorfor greek life, said he isn’t.
“I just want to make sure people don’t identify him as gay,” Casesaid. “He is not gay. The issue of the hate crime is whether or nothe was perceived to be gay and whether or not the hatred of gaypeople was the motivation of the attack.”
John is waiting until after the trial to comment.
Three sides to every story
John said he did not incite the alleged incident with May.
“The evidence to support the hate crime allegations would be thatfraternity members made reference to him as fag, ” Case said. “(John)alleged people were calling him fag at the party.”
John verified Case’s comments.
“Nothing happened until Mirek started addressing me,” John said.”I said something back to him probably in a smart-ass way.” WitnessClarissa Moore, a journalism sophomore, has a different account ofthe night. Moore said she was standing with two of her friends on thethird floor of the Sigma Alpha Mu house when an unknown man in aSpeedo swimsuit started harassing them.
“He was touching and grabbing us and being really stupid like hewas drunk,” Moore said. “We wanted him to leave us alone. When I sawMirek on the staircase I told him about the guy harassing us.”
Moore said May told her, “I’ll go deal with it.”
May said he was not drunk at the time of the incident andremembers the incident clearly.
“I don’t get into fights,” May said. “(John) was talking smack toeverybody and he wouldn’t leave.”
May admits to drinking at the party, but said he stopped beforethe incident occurred when the police first arrived to help withcrowd control.
John provoked the fight when he tried to enter May’s apartment,May said.
“He was barging into the room edging to fight saying ‘why don’tyou come out here and fight me,'” May said. “He was charging me andout of instinct I punched him. Then a bunch of guys grabbed him andtook him downstairs and I don’t know what happened after that.
“I only hit him one time with my fist because he was coming atme.”
John said he was not harassing girls at the party and May hit himmore than once.
May has a straight pride sticker on his car, but said it doesn’tmake him a gay-basher.
“The sticker is a total joke,” May said. “Why do homosexuals haverainbow stickers? It is not negative and it is just like anythingelse.”
Out of Control
The Sigma Alpha Mu Halloween party itself was out of control,according to those in attendance and police records.
Fraternity president Alex Abdoulin said the party was not supposedto start until 8 p.m., but a live band kicked off the party at 6:30p.m.
And instead of the 150 people who were on the guest list,University Police estimate that 1,000 people were on the premises andanother 800 were in the street trying to get in.
Three security guards were on duty.
“When the security guards had gotten there at eight the party wasalready in full swing and they already had several times the amountof people then they were suppose to,” Case said.
“The entire party was just chaos,” Aidoulin said. “I think it gotout of control. It was just a poorly planned party and there was alot of miscommunication which caused it to go wrong so the partynever officially got started.”
Eighteen police officers were dispatched to break up the party.
“The fraternity itself has already been disciplined for the partybecause they broke every rule in the book,” Case said.
Sigma Alpha Mu violated noise regulations, started the partyearlier than planned, failed to follow the 150 person maximum andmembers were uncooperative in helping to stop the party.
In addition, fraternities are not supposed to have parties withkegs or bottles. Despite this, a keg, bottled alcohol and marijuanawas found on the premises by police.
What’s Happening Now
Sigma Alpha Mu is on social probation until June 1, Case said, andis still under investigation for a possible violation of the school’szero-tolerance group violence policy.
The Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity has not disciplined May.
“The way it is being seen right now is that we don’t know whatwent on and there is just a bunch of hearsay left and right,”Abdoulin said. “Once it is decided in the courtrooms if he is foundguilty then we will also take actions as well.”
The fraternity broke the rule that members must be currently or atone point enrolled at the school when admitting May, Case said.
“He is still an initiated member, but he never went to SDSU,” Casesaid. “We could take action on the fraternity for that violation thatoccurred. At this point it is an open issue.”
John said he has not decided whether to sue for damages in civilcourt.
The chapter has issued a statement saying that it completelysupports the investigation and will continue to provide assistance tolaw enforcement and the district attorney in reference to thismatter.
