15 Salisbury University students charged with hate crimes after they allegedly beat a man they lured to an apartment

In this Wednesday, May 29, 2019, file photo, a woman looks at the Grindr app on her mobile phone in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Fifteen students at Salisbury University in Maryland are facing assault and hate crime charges after they allegedly targeted a man “due to his sexual preferences” and lured him to an off-campus apartment where they beat him, police said.

Police say a man was invited “under false pretenses” to an apartment in Salisbury, where a group of men immediately surrounded him upon entry, forced him into a chair in the living room and then proceeded to kick, punch and spit on him while calling him derogatory names, police said.

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The students, all men ranging in age from 18 to 21, were charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crimes in connection with the October 15 incident, the Salisbury Police Department said this month in news releases.

“An investigation revealed that the victim was targeted due to his sexual preferences,” Salisbury Police said. Police reviewed videos of the incident – recorded without the victim’s consent – from one of the defendants’ phones, charging documents obtained by CNN affiliate WJZ show.

At least 12 suspects have been suspended from Salisbury University, with some of those also expelled from their fraternity, the institutions said.

Attorneys for two of the suspects, however, have said further details will make clear the incident is not related to the victim’s sexual orientation.

“Let me just set the record straight - this is not a hate crime,” lawyer Steve Rakow said last week in a statement, adding his client intends to plead not guilty.

Hate crimes against the LGBTQ2S+ community have been on the rise, with 2,402 recorded incidents in 2023 relating to a victim’s sexual orientation, up from 1,947 from the year prior, an FBI annual report released in September shows.

In the Maryland incident, one of the accused men met the victim on the LGBTQ2S+ dating app Grindr, pretended to be 16 years old and set a date to meet up “for the purposes of having sexual intercourse,” according to the charging documents. The legal age of consent in Maryland is 16 years old.

When the victim entered the apartment and shut the door, one of the students yelled “YEE YEE,” and about 15 college-aged men appeared from the bedrooms and assaulted him while using a homophobic slur, among other derogatory terms, to refer to him, police allege.

The victim told police he tried to leave the apartment several times but was “grabbed by multiple people and thrown to the ground,” according to the charging document. The victim was eventually allowed to leave and discovered he had suffered a broken rib and multiple bruises across his body as a result of the attack, police said.

The alleged beating, which lasted about five to six minutes, came to light after two witnesses reported to university police on October 29 that one of the defendants showed them a video of the assault, according to the document. University police then contacted the Salisbury Police Department.

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Cell phone videos retrieved from a defendant’s phone led police to the victim and eventually to additional suspects, according to the document.

Still, there are facts and details about the incident the public has yet to see, said Rakow, the defense attorney.

“Once all of the facts see the light of day, this case will be shown to be an ill-advised attempt to expose someone willing to travel to have sexual relations with a 16-year-old child,” another suspect’s lawyer, James L. Britt, told the Baltimore Banner.

John K. Phoebus, an attorney representing another suspect, declined to comment.

A student arrested November 7 by Howard County Police has a preliminary hearing scheduled for December 5 in the case, according to court records. A preliminary hearing for at least one other defendant is set for December 6, Rakow said.

CNN has reached out to Salisbury police for further comment as well as attorneys for some of the defendants.

Students placed on suspension

The alleged assault is “truly horrifying,” Salisbury University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre said in a statement to the student body.

“Acts of violence toward LGBTQ+ and Ally communities are not only destructive but at odds with the principles of community, respect, and belonging that bind us together as a university,” Lepre said. “These actions do not reflect the SU that I know and love. A place where everyone should feel safe and free from harm. A place where violence is unacceptable.”

At least the first 12 students arrested have been placed on suspension, the university said in a statement. “This includes being restricted from campus and being unable to participate in academic coursework either in person or virtually.”

Some of those students were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which has been placed on suspension, the university said.

The fraternity expelled the members involved after learning of the allegations and reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident, it said.

“These individuals’ actions do not align with the values of our organization,” a statement from the fraternity reads. “Sigma Alpha Epsilon condemns hate and violence in any form, and we are disappointed that members of our chapter were involved in such an act.”

Sigma Alpha Epsilon did not identify those who were expelled from the fraternity.

Grindr is “ready to cooperate with law enforcement requests to support their investigation,” the dating app told CNN in a statement.

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“Grindr has always taken its role as a connector for the LGBTQ+ community very seriously. We are aware that in certain instances, digital platforms such as ours are used to target LGBTQ+ people,” a Grindr spokesperson said in an email. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment, and abusive behavior and work hard to ensure a safe and authentic environment free of harmful and fake accounts, scammers, and bad actors.”

LGBTQ2S+ advocacy group PFLAG Salisbury was “horrified and disheartened” after learning about the “bias-motivated attack” against a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, it said.

“PFLAG recognizes that the effects of this deliberate, premeditated act that targeted a person based on their sexual orientation will ripple across the Salisbury University campus, the Lower Shore, and the State of Maryland, reviving and increasing anxiety and collective distress,” the organization said in a statement.

CNN’s Nic F. Anderson, Maria Aguilar Prieto and Dalia Faheid contributed to this report.