SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - In a case involving violence, misunderstanding and perhaps even prejudice, a group of people accused of attacking two gay men were in court Tuesday.
Back on July 4, 2008, D. J. Bell and Dan Fair were accused of kidnapping two children from a neighboring house. After the children were returned, family and friends allegedly came back and attacked the men.
Bell was tried and acquitted of kidnapping.
Now he is no longer the accused, but the accuser. He was also in court today watching as the seven people allegedly involved in his assault stood before a judge.
Bell and Fair say they want to see justice served. "We are very sincere about seeing our attackers put behind bars," said Fair. Bell added, "We are and always have been the victims in this. I'm been the victim of two crimes, one an assault the other a lie that caused my trial in the first place. And it's destroyed my life. I just want it back."
Today's hearing produced little more than a schedule for defense motions and a July date for another hearing.
Afterwards, attorneys for some of the defendants argued that a court-imposed gag order on their clients is unfair. Taylor Harley, the attorney for Tupulululululu Latu, complained, "It's a violation of first amendment rights." Another defense attorney, Clayton Simms said, "Mr.. Bell had a successful blog all during his prosecution. Now we're not allowed to do the same to express ourselves on the internet in the form of a blog."
The attorneys say the blog would simply be a forum to tell their side of the story and solicit support. But Susanne Gustin, who represents both Bell and Fair, said other social networking sites have been used to threaten and intimidate her clients. "People who were there at the party that night have been posting things on websites threatening DJ and saying they should have finished them off. One more hit would have finished them off. So they're pretty serious threats."
A plea deal rumored to be in the works for at least some of the defendants did not come up in Tuesday's hearing.
Despite the bitterness, Bell said he would actually welcome a deal because it would bring an end to the nasty dispute that began nearly two years ago.
