A Boston-area teen is under arrest and charged with a hate crime after he allegedly held a 50-year-old man captive inside a basement apartment for four days, starved him and beat him with a bat because he’s gay.
FRAMINGHAM: Sugrue Jackson is accused of assaulting, & holding a man against his will for 4days. Police say, this was a hate crime. “Sugrue knew the victim was gay,&used him for favors”. pic.twitter.com/o1jayKIhLI
— Malini Basu (@WFXTMalini) July 2, 2018
Police in the Boston suburb of Framingham discovered the man, Otoni Eliseu, after someone else called in a report about a man being beaten with a bat.
Boston 25 News reports: “Jackson Sugrue, 19. of Framingham, is facing a hate crime charge because Eliseu alleges he kept yelling homosexual slurs as Sugrue assaulted him, the prosecution said…At the scene, officers found Eliseu wearing only a pair of pants, lying on the ground covered in blood, bruises and scratches.”
Eliseu, who had been living in the woods, was staying in the church basement and had used crack with Sugrue before Sugrue threatened him, Boston 25 adds: ‘On Saturday, the prosecution alleges Sugrue pulled Eliseu from his bed onto the floor and began attacking him repeatedly by stepping on his throat and choking him. Eliseu claims it was a hate crime because he is gay. “He attacked me on my back, on my butt, [saying] ‘you’re gay, you like me,'” said Eliseu. Eliseu also claims Sugrue beat him with a coffee table while yelling out homosexual slurs and referencing his sexuality, allegedly saying “I know you’re gay.” Eliseu also said Sugrue beat him with a fire extinguisher. Eliseu told Boston 25 News he begged and cried to get out of the bathroom. On Saturday, he managed to break free and run for his life.’
Sugrue’s attorney and parents claim that Sugrue is the victim, Metro West Daily News reports:
Sugrue’s attorney, Kenneth Gross argued for Sugrue’s release.
Gross claimed Sugrue was actually the victim. He said the 50-year-old man was trying to take advantage of his 19-year-old client.
“He (alleged victim) was trying to entice my client to do things that were against his nature,” Gross said.
Sugrue’s parents, Terry and Frank, were shocked and dismayed by the story told by the alleged victim. They spoke with the Daily News on Monday.
“My son is a victim of a 50-year-old man,” said Terry Sugrue. She added the two had known each other for a couple of months and that in the past week, she and her husband had tried to limit the contact between her son and the other man.
Terry said she and her husband had tried to help the other man by doing things like buying him dishes.
“This is someone we tried to help,” said Terry Sugrue. “He became obsessed with my son.”
Watch Boston 25’s report:
