12 months' probation ordered in 2002 assault on homosexual / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, August 14, 2004

August 14, 2004

A judge Friday ordered a year's probation for the man convicted of punching Lawrence resident Jeffrey Medis in 2002 during a scuffle outside the Replay Lounge.

But the sentencing of Luke E. Wells, 24, Manhattan, won't get Medis one of his main objective: help paying his medical bills and other damages. Medis, who is openly gay and characterized the punch as a hate crime, suffered broken upper and lower jaws, a broken nose, a fractured eye socket and a gash on his chin after falling onto a concrete planter.

So far, he's rung up about $19,000 in medical and dental bills. He is seeking more than $75,000 from Wells in a civil lawsuit that's yet to be settled.

"I would just like to see something done about all his medical bills," Medis' mother, Linda, of Shawnee, said outside the courtroom after the sentencing.

Wells previously pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor battery.

Friday, District Judge Paula Martin sentenced him to six months in the Douglas County Jail but suspended the sentence and ordered him to 12 months' supervised probation.

Wells remained silent when Martin asked him if he had anything to say on his own behalf. Wells' attorney, Terrence J. Campbell, said he'd advised his client not to say anything because of the pending lawsuit.

Medis now is living in California and didn't attend the sentencing. His attorney, John Solbach, called Wells' attack "a sucker punch" and "a deliberate, unwarranted attack."

"There should be no dispute about who was the first to attack, and certainly (Medis) was not," Solbach said.

Suspect charged in beating gay man (8-15-03)

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6News video: Charges filed in fight in front of Replay Lounge

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Immunity pact infuriating to jury (7-30-03)

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6News video: Medis disappointed in handling of case

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Witnesses: Fight not hate crime (7-29-03)

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6News video: Witnesses testify in beating case (7-29-03)

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First charges filed in fight outside Replay Lounge (2-26-03)

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Beating victim questions case's progress (2-13-03)

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Police identify suspect in beating (12-25-02)

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Dozens at vigil decry beating (12-14-02)

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Police seek clues in beating (12-09-02)

Campbell responded, "We simply dispute those facts and would intend to dispute them vigorously in a civil case."

At the time of the fight, Medis said he was wearing heavy eye makeup and a frilly white jacket he called his "gay snowball" outfit.

Wells testified last year that he and some friends from a Kansas University fraternity were outside the Replay Lounge, 946 Mass., shortly after 1 a.m. Dec. 6, 2002, when they were accosted by Medis and Medis' friend John Thomas Simmons.

Wells said he hit Medis once after Medis took two swings at one of Wells' friends.

That testimony came during a trial in which Simmons was accused of hitting four men in Wells' group. A jury found Simmons guilty of hitting two of the men, but not guilty of hitting two others.

After the verdict in Simmons' case, a juror told the Journal-World most of the jury didn't believe the version of events told by Wells and his friends.

Prosecutors and police repeatedly have said the fight wasn't a hate crime, but the juror said that after sitting through the trial, she thought Medis' homosexuality was a factor in the attack.