The Human Rights Campaign expressed deep concern about the West Hollywood, Calif., district attorney’s decision not to file hate-crimes charges against three suspects arrested in connection to last month’s brutal assaults–with baseball bats and metal pipes–on two gay men. The addition of hate-crimes charges could add two years to the suspects’ sentences if convicted.
District Attorney Steve Cooley has said in a statement that after a thorough review of the evidence, his office has determined that the motive for the crimes was robbery. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, West Hollywood Deputy Sheriff Don Mueller said that “based on our interview with the suspects and the information they admitted to, we believe that there is evidence to go forward with a hate-crime charge.”