Police seek suspect in brutal hate crime

Police seek suspect in brutal hate crime:

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MESQUITE — A lesbian from Seagoville was recovering this week after suffering a dislocated jaw when she was brutally attacked in an apparent anti-gay hate crime at a Mesquite playground.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Mesquite Police Department disputed initial media reports about the attack that suggested authorities were discounting anti-gay bias as a possible motive. The spokesman said police are still looking for a suspect but haven’t ruled out a hate crime.

The suspect yelled gay epithets while he beat Sondra Scarber after she tried to defend her 4-year-old son from bullying at the hands of the suspect’s children. After knocking Scarber to the ground, the suspect kicked her in the mouth and stomped her face. She would later need surgery on her jaw, which had been knocked an inch-and-a-half out of alignment.

Scarber said this week she’s on a room-temperature liquid diet. Both hot and cold hurts the metal in her mouth. She’s tried some solid food, but even mashed potatoes are hard for her to swallow. Scarber said rubber bands in her mouth would be off in two weeks, metal would come out in three weeks and then she would begin physical therapy that could last up to two years.

“There’s no feeling in the lower jaw,” Scarber said.

The assault happened Feb. 17 at the Seabourn Elementary School playground, where Scarber and her partner Hillary Causey had taken their son to play.

A 10-year-old began pushing their son around so Scarber told the boy to stop. That’s when the boy’s younger sister went to the car to get their father. Causey said she expected the father to tell his son not to pick on a 4-year-old but as he got closer, she could see his anger. At first, he thought Scarber was a man.

When he realized she was woman, he said, “Oh, it’s a bitch. It’s a bitch,” according to Causey. “You’re a woman, but you think you’re a man.”

He called her a dyke and a faggot, holding her up by her necklace and repeatedly hitting her in the face until he knocked her out.

“I’m going to beat you like a man,” he said.

Causey said a woman who was with the suspect tried to stop him but he pushed her away. He dropped Scarber to the ground and kicked her in the mouth, detaching her jaw on the right side. Scarber said as she was trying to regain consciousness, she saw his foot come down on her face.

She said her son was standing there watching.

“Please don’t kill her,” she said he pleaded.