Eugene, OR – A man arrested on a hate crime allegation in the beating of a Jewish man isn’t likely to face that charge in court.
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A Lane County grand jury returned an indictment this week charging Gary Lee Kehm, 32, with third- and fourth-degree assault in a pair of attacks last month on a 33-year-old transient of Jewish heritage.
Eugene police said Kehm shouted anti-Semitic slurs during one of the incidents, which prompted officers to arrest him on charges of assault and first-degree intimidation. The latter charge involves threatening or injuring someone because of their race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national origin.
But after reviewing evidence in the case, a grand jury opted to indict Kehm on assault charges, and nothing more.
Lane County Chief Deputy District Attorney Patty Perlow said a grand jury could review additional evidence gathered in the case to support more charges, but a police spokeswoman said Wednesday that detectives already have completed their investigation.
Police said Kehm and another man assaulted the 33-year-old victim the night of March 20 on East 13th Avenue.
The second suspect, identified as Michael David Rister, 34, faces second- and third-degree assault charges in connection with the attack. Rister allegedly used a chain wrapped around his hand to assault the victim, Perlow said.
Police said Kehm allegedly returned to the area about two hours after the initial attack to again assault the victim. It was during that incident that he allegedly uttered the slurs. The victim declined medical treatment for his injuries.
Reports that the victim was targeted because of his religion led Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and representatives of the local Jewish community to issue a joint statement condemning the second attack.
Piercy said Wednesday that she feels the statement expressing support for the victim was an appropriate way to remind people that the city “has zero tolerance for hate crimes or hate speech.”
Police “told me right up front that ‘We don’t know if this will constitute a hate crime,’ ” Piercy said. “But we do know the language (Kehm allegedly) used was hateful, and it seems to us that we need to consistently speak out against hate crimes and hate speech. This (issue) comes up on an almost routine basis.”
Piercy noted that police in 2008 investigated anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on buildings in Eugene.
In an earlier high-profile incident, a group of white supremacists were convicted in federal court of throwing swastika-engraved rocks through windows at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene in 2002, disrupting a service attended by 80 worshippers.
I lived in Eugene OR as a teenager. Major redneck center.