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FBI Investigating Homophobic Abuse
by Texas Park Rangers

Probe Requested by HRC, Sparked by Texas Triangle Report

San Antonio Officers Said to Have Called Canadians 'Faggots'

Compiled By GayToday

A San Antonio Park Ranger at the Alamo. Other rangers have been accused of calling a group of Canadian tourists "faggots." The FBI is now investigating.

Washington, D.C.--The FBI told Human Rights Campaign officials last week that they have begun a probe of serious allegations of unlawful harassment and physical abuse committed by San Antonio Park Rangers who allegedly referred to a group of Canadian friends as "faggots" while they were beaten.

"The fairest way to resolve this matter is to bring in outside investigators who can look into these allegations free from possible bias or conflict of interest," said HRC Communications Director David M. Smith. "We are pleased that the FBI has agreed to investigate these serious charges as soon as possible."

On the night of July 12, a group of Canadian friends -- Joey Abbruzzese, 20; Derick Anbradi, 21; and Gregory Maleszyk, 19 -- visiting relatives in San Antonio were leaving a bar in the city's famous River Walk. Abbruzzese stumbled on the way out and was caught by Maleszyk, making the heterosexual friends appear gay to the Rangers, according to the Texas Triangle, a gay newspaper in San Antonio. (The article can be found at www.txtriangle.com.) The article reports that the Rangers then put the friends through a traumatic episode of extreme physical and verbal abuse, using anti-gay slurs during repeated beatings.

"When the cop saw the Ontario license, he looked to the other three officers present and said he had 'two Canadian faggots,'" Abbruzzese told the Triangle. "The officer then asked, 'What are you fags doing in our city?'"

Two of the men, Abruzzese and Maleszyk, were taken to the Bexar County Jail, where they claim they were not read their rights under the Miranda rule. It says that law-enforcement officials must warn a person taken into custody that he or she has the right to remain silen and is entitled to legal counsel. The next day they were charged with resisting arrest, but there was no reason given to why they were arrested in the first place.

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This run-in did not surprise local activists who have long maintained that the Rangers have targeted gay men for harassment and arrest. After 500 arrests and the city's acknowledgement of an active undercover program targeting gays, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of San Antonio issued a travel warning in December 1999. "If what the Canadian tourists say is true, and I continue to receive evidence that supports their allegations, a hate crime has been committed by law enforcement officials in San Antonio and the public trust has been violated," said Dan Castor, political action coordinator of the San Antonio Equal Rights Political Caucus.

"Hate crimes in Texas rose 7 percent last year, and of this number, 17 percent of these reported attacks were based on the actual or perceived sexual orientation of the victims," wrote HRC in a letter to the FBI requesting the probe.