EDITOR’S NOTE: Corey Stedman, subject of the attack described in this story, has given details of the incident to WEHOville and clarifies that he is not gay. The new story can be found here.
A young gay man was assaulted in the early hours of Thursday morning on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Corey Stedman, 25, was said to have been at Micky’s, the bar at 8857 Santa Monica Blvd. near Larrabee earlier in the evening. He was discovered on Santa Monica near Sweetzer around 3 a.m. by Anthony Vulin, a local Realtor who lives on Sweetzer. Vulin said he saw Stedman, apparently injured, and reached out to help. Stedman said he had been assaulted by three Hispanic men who called a fag, a pejorative term used to insult gays. Vulin said Steman was bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth.
Lt. David Smith of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said that a detective has been assigned to the case and is talking to Stedman about the allegation that his assailants used a homophobic insult.
West Hollywood has experienced a number of assaults of gay men in and near the city’s Boystown nightlife district. One of the most notorious was the assault of Kirk Doffing, who was beaten behind the Rage bar on Santa Monica Boulevard almost a year ago. Doffing still remains in treatment for a serious brain injury. Earlier this month another young gay man, Christopher Burton, who also identifies himself as Christopher de la Cruz, said he was assaulted at night in a hate crime near the Pavilions grocery store. And in January Anthony Villegas, a 23-year-old gay man, was found unconscious near the Gelson’s grocery store after an apparent assault.
My roommate was just beaten up outside Micky’s at 2 AM. Left bloodied on the sidewalk and only one person noticed and helped. This is becoming too much of a regular thing in Weho.
Thank you, Mike Dunn.
Have we regressed to blaming victims for being assaulted ?
This person could have any number of reasons for being where he was.
Being beaten up for presumably being gay or for any other reason, is criminal and should be rallied against in this city !!
Juan, some of us are not in bed at 10:00PM. Some clubs now stay open until about 4:00AM but do not sell alcohol after two.
What’s with all the bitchy queens?
I was jumped by two boys (can’t consider them men) outside of the bayou walking home from a friends down Santa Monica blvd last year and I was told by the sherrif that if I wanted to have my attackers arrested then I would need to also be arrested since it was he-said-she said and then told the officers that I had hit them despite about 30 eye witnesses who disagreed. It’s sad the way that town works.
@Tom Smart, I agree. And Lindsey Horvath’s publicity-seeking nonsense over Donald Trump is way too enticing and more fun than dealing with something serious like this.
What a person doing walking at 3:00 a.m ….cruising , putting himself in harms way ?
This is happening too much. Time to buy guns in Weho.
Actually, this article is excellent.
There was a black guy attacked by Whole Foods in the same time period as some of these others beatings. It was covered here then but I guess (?).
The city council is more interested in the design and color of park benches, how many pools to build and grand staircases than to spend any time on public safety.
Feeling the need for some loud noise to take back our streets – in West Hollywood no less! This crap is offically out of hand and the time is now to make a community-strong statement. Are you freaking kidding me! Another assualt?? Capt. Perez needs to make this a priority. Not (seemingly) in decades has there been so much hate crime in West Hollywood. Perhaps it’s just being better reported thanks to Hank and WeHoville??? Either way – we need to make noise.