• Joseph Baken, 22-year-old Montana man, admits gay-bashing attack was hoax

    Joseph Baken, seen here in a movie still from the 2011 film "Judas Kiss."

    By James Eng, NBC News

    A 22-year-old man who claimed he was badly beaten outside a downtown Missoula, Mont., bar because he is gay actually sustained his facial injuries trying to do a backflip on a sidewalk, police say.

    Joseph Baken of Billings, Mont., was charged with filing a false police report after a video obtained by police and the Missoula Independent newspaper cast doubt on his story.


    On Tuesday, Baken pleaded guilty in Missoula Municipal Court to the false report charge. He was given a 180-day suspended jail sentence and fined $300, according to the Independent.

    Baken initially reported to police that he was attacked early Sunday morning by three men outside the Missoula Club, where he said he had gone to celebrate his 22nd birthday, after asking patrons about the location of a gay bar, according to local media reports.

    Pictures of his badly bruised face quickly circulated on the Internet and were displayed on the Wipe Out Homophobia Facebook page and other sites. Gay-rights activists expressed outrage at what they thought was a gay-bashing hate crime.

    But Baken’s story began to fall apart after the Independent and the Missoula Police Department obtained what appears to be cellphone video footage that shows Baken trying to do a backflip on a sidewalk in Missoula. He falls short during the landing, smacking his face against the sidewalk.

    “Video evidence taken by unidentified sources was examined and demonstrates that Joseph Baken caused injury to himself by attempting a backward somersault and striking his head on the sidewalk at about 2:30 AM on Higgins Avenue,” Lt. Scott Brodie said in a statement.

    “Joseph Baken was contacted by Missoula police detectives and during a subsequent interview he admitted that the alleged assault against him did not occur as it was reported,” Brodie said.

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    The decision to charge Baken with filing a false report “was due in part to the sense of fear and anger that quickly developed after Baken had identified a specific business and possible suspects in his allegations,” Brodie said.

    Baken could not be reached by NBCNews.com for comment on Thursday. A phone call to a listing for Joseph Baken in Billings went unanswered.

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    Baken was a featured background player in the 2011 film "Judas Kiss," billed as "an offbeat contemporary drama on a college campus alive with magical realism."

    Carlos Pedraza, "Judas Kiss" writer-producer, had posted the picture of Baken's battered face on the movie's website along with news of the alleged attack. In a follow-up blog post on Tuesday, Pedraza said:

    "As a journalist, I can now see the initial report raised questions that should have been followed up on before this case rose to the level of national attention that it has (e.g., Towleroad and Huffington Post). As a person who wanted to believe his friend, I admit my bias: I glossed over these questions because I wanted to support my friend. But reporters shouldn’t have.

    I posted the news based on press reports and on the fact that a friend and cast member had been hurt. I stand by that decision because anti-gay violence is all too common, and whether this report is true doesn’t change that. Even though the report was false, it doesn’t lessen the value of the offers of support many people had asked me to relay. I am heartened by their stand that such violence is wrong and should be prosecuted."

     

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  • 80 rape reports in 3 years: Montana city, campus complaints prompt Justice Department probe

    By NBC Montana and msnbc.com news services

    MISSOULA, Mont. – The U.S. Department of Justice unveiled a broad probe Tuesday into complaints that authorities were failing to aggressively investigate sexual assault reports in Missoula, citing more than 80 reported rapes there during the past three years. 

    The investigation includes a review of the handling of sexual assault and harassment reports at the University of Montana at Missoula, where at least 11 student-related sex assault cases have surfaced in recent months. 


    At least two members of the university's Big Sky Conference champion football team, the Grizzlies, have been accused of rape, leading to the recent dismissal of the football coach and the school's athletic director. 

    A central thrust of the federal investigation will focus on complaints that local law enforcement has failed to properly investigate and prosecute sexual assaults on women in Missoula due to gender discrimination, the justice department said. 

    "The allegations that the University of Montana, the local police department and the county attorney's office failed to adequately address sexual assaults are very disturbing," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. 

    Full story at KECI, NBC Montana

    Local authorities said the incidence of rape in Missoula, a western Montana city of 86,000 people, is on par with similarly sized college towns, and the county's chief prosecutor questioned the Justice Department's rationale for its inquiry. 

    The investigation comes in the midst of an election year in which women's issues have moved to the forefront as candidates seek to burnish their credentials among female voters. 

    The Justice Department probe will examine the inner workings of the university's public safety office, the Missoula Police Department and the Missoula County Attorney's Office. 

    Additionally, the department will review whether the university is complying with federal laws specifically barring sex discrimination, defined as including sexual assault and sexual harassment, in education programs, officials said. 

     Details of the investigation were announced at a news conference in Missoula, whose economy and identity are closely entwined with the state's flagship research institution. 

    "There are a lot of women in the community who have strong concerns about the manner in which sexual assaults have been handled," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 

    Missoula Police Chief Mark Muir acknowledged his department had received roughly 80 rape reports in the past three years. But he said that on a per-capita basis, that figure was at or below the average level of reported rapes for U.S. college towns of similar size and makeup. 

    Muir, who said his department would cooperate with the inquiry, said he did not know how many of those reports had resulted in criminal charges being filed. Justice Department officials said they will be delving into that very question. 

    Missoula County's chief prosecutor, Fred Van Valkenburg, fiercely defended his office and the local police, calling the Justice Department probe an "overreach by the federal government." 

    "I have no reason to believe (police) violated anyone's rights," he said, adding that his office had no choice but to cooperate given "the heavy hand of a federal government that refuses to tell us what we supposedly have done wrong." 

    However, for Missoula business and university boosters, the investigation is an unwelcome development.

    Administrators and business leaders say they worry about fallout from the Justice Department probe and six months of news about sex assault investigations tied to the university. From the fall of 2010 to fall of 2011, full-time student enrollment dropped by 2 percent.

    NBC Montana and Reuters contributed to this report.

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