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07/23/2008


SC Teen Who Accused Father of Anti-Gay Assault Was Lying

Last Friday I posted about a teen in Anderson, South Carolina, now identified as Dwight Clark Ables, who had allegedly returned home from a gay pride festival to be attacked with a baseball bat by his father.

AblesThe Independent Mail reported that "the battering took place about 1 p.m. Sunday on P Street. During the assault, the teen's 49-year-old father yelled, cursed, swung the bat, prayed and tried to 'cast the demon of homosexuality out of him,' according to the teen's version of events to Deputy S.C. Weymouth..."

Turns out there was no evidence to support the teen's claims and he is now in custody for filing a false report, according to Q-Notes:

"'After conducting a thorough investigation and the lack of any forensic evidence to support the allegation of the assault, Dwight Clark Ables has been charged with 1 count of Filing a False Police report. He turned himself in today at the Anderson County Sheriff’s office,' read a press release from the Department’s Public Information Officer Suzanne Griffin. Ables is currently being held at the Anderson County Detention Center where he awaits a bond hearing."

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Posted 6:18 PM EST by Andy in Crime, News, South Carolina | Permalink

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  1. What an asshole. Too many of our gay brothers and sisters actually suffer this kind of treatment, and the gay community readily steps up to protect, console, and counsel the abused. For a dickweed like this to falsely raise an alarm is an insult to the truly abused and an enbarrassment to the community at large.

    It's douche bags like this that douche bags like Limbaugh, Dobson, Savage, Wildmon, and O'Reilly hold up to smear our entire community and try to attack the credibility of the rest.

    Posted by: MikeinSanJose | Jul 23, 2008 6:49:04 PM


  2. I dunno. You have to be careful rushing to judgment either way in situations like this.

    I know of a case in Oklahoma a few years ago where a lesbian couple claimed to have been assaulted and later recanted. I met someone who knew them personally and said they had told him basically that they were getting jerked around by the local police and eventually the OSBI came and more or less made it clear that if they didn't recant, some form of charges would be filed against them.

    Is that true or not? I have no idea. Entirely second-hand information, but it makes the point things aren't always as clear as they seem. There can be other factors involved. A couple of conflicting articles aren't enough to make sound judgements when all you really know is only what the articles tell you.

    Posted by: sutherlund | Jul 23, 2008 7:24:11 PM


  3. Frankly, I don't entirely trust police in South Carolina to get a story about a gay kid correct.

    Still, no matter which story is true, this kid's got serious troubles.

    Posted by: Alan | Jul 23, 2008 7:34:12 PM


  4. I would not be surprised at all to find out that the situation is akin to what Sutherlund alludes to. Knowing SC like I do, it's very possible. Heck, it's likely. As outsiders, there are just too many variables to make a judgment.

    That said, it seems like considering the type of assault that was reported, there would be physical signs on Ables at the very least.

    Posted by: EldringSMP | Jul 23, 2008 7:38:42 PM


  5. the boy's a minor, the father's an adult. he probably recanted to same the family some larger legal problems. either way, he's in a bad situation.

    Posted by: voodoolock | Jul 23, 2008 8:06:07 PM


  6. Okay, maybe my initial post was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, but the original story said the kid was 18 years old (legally an adult) and that he had been beaten with a baseball bat. The follow up story says there was a lack of forensic evidence to support the claim.

    If he had in fact been hit with a bat surely there would at least have been a hospital visit or some sort of medical report. Bruises would be evidence. And even in SC, the cops would be walking a mighty fine line if they threw a kid in jail simply for reporting a gay-bashing. Is his father the Sheriff and they're protecting him?

    Hmmm...

    .

    Posted by: MikeInSanJose | Jul 23, 2008 8:53:46 PM


  7. He's cute as fuck. Who cares if he's lying? The only thing that matters is that I would do him, NQA.

    Posted by: Steve | Jul 23, 2008 11:24:39 PM


  8. He's cute as fuck. Who cares if he's lying? The only thing that matters is that I would do him, NQA.

    Posted by: Steve | Jul 23, 2008 11:26:42 PM


  9. I'm not buying the cop-conspiracy angle. This dude seems like another dishonorable kid who wants to use the one "unusual" thing about himself for as much sympathy as possible. So you're gay, kid. So maybe dad's being an asshole on gay pride. Waaaaah. Your pain is so unique and poignant. Not. Making shit up to get in the news just doesn't solve anything, does it?

    Posted by: Yeek | Jul 24, 2008 3:02:23 AM


  10. No matter what, I think the correct headline here, Mike is "allegedly lying." We don't get to decide what the kid did or didn't do.

    Posted by: Boomer | Jul 24, 2008 9:50:41 AM


  11. Yeah, but gay children are beaten savagely and murdered "to get the gay out of them".
    Three years ago, down in Florida, Ronnie Paris was beaten to death by his father "to get the gay out of him". He was 3 years old.

    Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jul 24, 2008 10:10:18 AM


  12. Generally speaking, parents who beat 3 year olds are psychotic, not just homophobic.

    What are the odds the kid's using drugs??

    I guess this shows that we tend to fill in the blanks too much when hearing about stuff online.

    Posted by: anon | Jul 24, 2008 11:50:34 AM


  13. Gee, Steve, one track mind much? It speaks so well of gay men in general.

    Posted by: Jerry | Jul 24, 2008 12:58:21 PM


  14. This is a good example of the hazard of rushing to judgment, both in reaction to the original report and to the latest development.

    The original report was that the kid reported that his father went after him with a baseball bat at 1 p.m. on a Sunday after he had returned home from a gay pride parade.

    That should have been a red flag. I went to the Seattle pride parade a few weeks ago, and it didn't even start until noon as I recall. How could this kid have been already returned home from a parade by 1 p.m.? Then there is the matter of the police report. The kid didn't file it until Wednesday, i.e., three days later. Come on, who waits that long to report a bashing?

    All of those facts were in the first story, which was obviously based on a police report. There was no presentation of the other side of the story, nor was there any quotation of the police themselves. This isn't the newspaper's fault, by the way. It's standard operating procedure for a small-town newspaper. The reporter goes to the cop shop and takes down what's on the blotter. That's how it's done.

    The follow-up makes it pretty clear what's actually going on. The kid is a troubled delinquent of some sort. "Gay" is beside the point. He's just a screw-up. Not a felonious screw-up, just a common screw-up. He's not responsible for the national image of gay people. He's just a garden variety dumbshit of the sort that you'll find everywhere.

    Yeah, really, sometimes that's what crap like this is all about.

    Posted by: Former Reporter | Jul 24, 2008 10:01:38 PM


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