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Two Men Plead Guilty to Stonewall Inn Hate Crime Attack

By DNAinfo Staff on September 8, 2011 9:32pm

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A pair of Staten Island men who attacked and robbed a Stonewall Inn customer in the bathroom while shouting homophobic slurs pleaded guilty to felony hate crimes Thursday, prosecutors said.

Christopher Orlando, 18, and Matthew Francis, 22, admitted to attacking a 34-year-old Washington, D.C., man who was visiting the landmark gay civil rights establishment on a trip to New York.  

"Get away from me f--got. I don't like gay people," Francis told the victim, Benjamin Carver, according to prosecutors. "Give me a dollar. Give me 20."

The victim, a writer and art director, was pushed to the ground and punched in the face by Francis while Orlando held him down. 

Francis was also later charged with assaulting a homeless man on Staten Island while free on bail in the Stonewall case. He has been promised a sentence of two years in jail under the plea deal after originally facing up to eight years.

Carver updated his Facebook page from a hospital bed after the early-morning Oct. 3, 2010 attack.

"Got gay bashed while peeing in the bathroom at stonewall bar, where the gay rights movement began. Ironic, right?" he wrote from the hospital.

"New York, I still love you," he added.

Francis pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery. He is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 27.

Orlando, who prosecutors believed played a lesser role in the attack, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery in exchange for a six-month jail sentence to be handed down Jan. 12. He also faced up to eight years in jail.

The case was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Hate Crimes Unit.