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Man Tortures Disabled Roommate
for Making Love to a Male

Three Organizations Calling Attacks on Victim a 'Hate Crime'

Fort Wayne, Indiana Police Ignore 'Hate Crime' Designation

Compiled By GayToday

Ft. Wayne, Indiana-- The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette commented Wednesday on the case of a disabled man, John Runner, tortured and beaten late last Friday, apparently for making love to another man, as noted by gay newsfeed commentator Scott Miller.

As a result, says the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, "John Runner clings to life in a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition today." His girlfriend is said to have found him bleeding.

The suspect in the assault is thirty-five-year-old Maurice A. Ellis, says the Gazette. He is both the assaulted man's cousin and his roommate. Ellis has been widely reported to have caught the victim in bed with man, thereafter erupting in rage.

Despite significant evidence that sexual orientation had been the triggering factor, authorities are not treating the cousin's criminal behavior as aggravated battery and his attack is not being investigated as a hate crime.

The League for the Blind and Disabled, United Voice and the Stop the Hate Coalition have publicly condemned the brutal assault. John Runner is described by the Gazette as "a man with disabilities who was found at his Winter Street home Saturday severely beaten and burned with bacon grease. Part of his brain had to be removed during emergency surgery."

"We believe it was a hate crime," said John Guingrich, assistant director of the League for the Blind and Disabled. "We believe it was worse because it happened to a disabled person who, it sounds like, would not have been able to defend himself."

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Guingrich also expressed shock that Ft. Wayne's police could fail to see Ellis's vicious crime as being prompted by anything other than hate. He said: "From all the knowledge we've seen in the press, it appeared he was caught in bed with another man. From our understanding, it sounds like that's what spurred the incident."

Among revelations published in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, both the disabled John Runner and his roommate/cousin Maurice A. Ellis have, in the past, spent time behind bars after being found guilty of serious charges of assault, and in the case of Runner, of an apparent battery role in a murder case.

Ellis was sentenced in 1989 to three years in prison. He'd reportedly struck then-Officer Nate Alexander during the arrest of another man. When the policeman had told Ellis to be quiet, says the Sentinel, "he pushed and punched the officer."

Ellis was once again sentenced in 1993. He received eight years in prison after stabbing a man's arm during a fight at a bowling alley.

John Runner too was sentenced to five years behind bars on battery charges for his reputed role in the death of Rickey Burris.