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Show World&Nation Monday, Oct. 27, 2010 Page 14 Charges dropped against 3 in NY anti-gay attacks NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against three people accused of taking part in anti-gay attacks on two men and two teens, citing a lack of evidence. Bryan Almonte and Brian Cepeda, both 17, and Steven Carabello, 16, had been charged with robbery, gang assault and unlawful imprisonment as hate crimes in the Oct. 3 attacks. Eight other people remain accused in the case, which city officials called the worst anti-gay attacks in recent history. It's possible more people will be arrested because investigators are still working. Family members and friends cheered outside court after the charges were dismissed, and the three boys' attorneys said they were pleased with the outcome. Almonte's attorney John O'Connell said his client thought he was at a party in the abandoned home where prosecutors say three of the victims were assaulted. "He's a victim here," O'Connell said. Almonte's girlfriend, 14-year-old Paola Suarez, said she was "so happy because my baby is getting out." Attorney Paul Horowitz, who represented Carabello, said he imagined his client "will try to get his life back together." Authorities said a loosely organized street crew known as the Latin King Goonies found out one of their recruits was gay — and when they found out, they snapped, setting off a weekend rampage. The recruit, a 17-year-old boy, was beaten and sodomized at the abandoned apartment, which they used as a hangout. The gang members then went after CHARGES OF ANTI-GAY gang violence are dropped against Bryan Almonte, who was rushed to the hospital after suffering a medical emergency in New York on Oct. 8. Almonte is one of seven suspects under arrest in connection with a horrific anti-gay gang attack on three men in the Bronx. AP photo a 30-year-old man known throughout the Bronx neighborhood as The Queen, who they believed had had a sexual encounter with the teen, prosecutors said. The man was burned, beaten, tortured and sodomized with a miniature baseball bat, police said. Almonte had been accused of taking part in that assault. The 30-year-old was attacked at the apartment hours after the initial assault. While he was r. r You've heard of the 4 C's of diamond quality ... 1. Carat 2. Color 3. Clarity 4. Cut S.E. Needham Jewelers introduces the "all important" 5th C of diamonds Jr. Confidence in your jeweler When you come into S.E. Needhams you will be served by educated and helpful sales consultants who will guide you through a comfortable diamond buying experience. You can have confidence in the exactness of our diamond grading; we grade our diamonds with the highest standard of ethics. We invite you to come experience what it feels like to shop at a store where you can have "confidence in your jeweler". coo0;1710964 Store Hours: Monday - Saturday 10:00 - 7:00 4) WELth Where Utah Get's Engaged! 141 North Main • 752-7149 www.seneedham.com Middle of the block at the sign of the clock. attacked, gang members took his house keys, went to his home and robbed him of a TV and cash after beating his roommate and 40-year-old brother, authorities said. The men also attacked a second teen they suspected was gay, prosecutors said. Cepeda and Carabello were accused in that attack, along with Almonte. The remaining suspects face charges including sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and assault as hate crimes. Their attorneys and families insist they are innocent and are not members of a gang. They say that the suspects have not been allowed to tell their sides of the story and that the 30-year-old man was paying boys for sex. The age of consent in New York is 16. Cepeda's attorney Philippe Dussec said it took a while for prosecutors to sift through the accusations and determine the three 17-year-old suspects weren't involved. "They did the right thing," he said. Cepeda got into a car and left without speaking to reporters. Also Tuesday, the most recently arrested suspect in the case was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of gang assault and robbery. He was being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned Nov. 23. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in prepared remarks before an Oct. 4 dinner for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, called the attacks "completely unacceptable" and promised "the perpetrators of the abuse and torture in the Bronx will be spared no mercy." Bloomberg said he was sickened by the accusations of violence "and saddened by the anti-gay bias." The beatings followed a nationwide string of anti-gay attacks and teen suicides attributed to anti-gay bullying, including the beating of a patron at the Stonewall Inn, a Manhattan bar that's been a symbol of the gay rights movement since protests over a 1969 police raid there. Iran loads fuel rods into first nuclear power plant TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran began the process of loading 163 fuel rods into the reactor core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, celebrating the achievement as proof that Tehran can outmaneuver international sanctions. The plant, built with Russian help in the southern port city of Bushehr, is not among the aspects of Iran's nuclear program that are of top concern to the international community and is not directly subject to sanctions. It has international approval and is supervised by the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency. Nevertheless, Iran has touted its startup as an act of defiance in the face of the penalties and has held up the plant as evidence that it only has peaceful nuclear intentions. The United States and some of its allies believe Bushehr and Iran's other civil nuclear work is providing cover for a secret weapons program under development. "The great Iranian nation can manage the sanctions with its resistance, efforts and endeavors and this is its proof," Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference broadcast on state TV. The U.N. Security Council has slapped four rounds of sanctions against Iran over a separate track of its nuclear program — its enrichment of uranium, which can be a gate- way to developing atomic weapons. Iran denies such an intention and says it only seeks to master the technology to produce fuel for a planned network of nuclear power facilities, starting with Bushehr. On Tuesday, Iran loaded the first three fuel assemblies into the plant's reactor core, beginning a process that will take two months, said Salehi, who is also head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The facility is expected to begin supplying electricity to the grid by mid-February. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear Tuesday that Washington sees a distinction between Bushehr and other nuclear tracks it suspects are meant to give Tehran potential pathways to weapons. "Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear power," she said after speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting to promote women's participation in peacekeeping. "They are not entitled to a nuclear weapons program." She said she was hopeful that Iran would agree to resume negotiations over the other aspects of its nuclear work. The European Union has proposed a new round of talks with Iran in Vienna in mid-November with the participation of the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany. EMPLOYEES WORK IN a part of the electricity generating plant of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, on Oct. 26. Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start up of the facility. AP photo 4369 8 Classi iedACiS Sen.st. Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.a-bay-usu.com Help Wanted HELP WANTED Earn $1000-$3200 a month to drive our brand new cars with ads placed on them. www.AdCarDriver.com New Talent jobs! Earn $17-$169 hr. 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