Skip to main contentEarlier this week, reporters were told that a local gay man was victimized by a brutal hate crime--repeatedly run over by a car. It was a compelling story that now seems increasingly questionable.
What we do know is this: At about 4 am Sunday, Timothy S. Lee, 24, was the victim of a hit-and-run near the corner of Southwest 26th Avenue and Barbur Boulevard, shattering his legs.
A friend, Bryson Lafferty, sent an email to local TV stations saying that Lee, who is gay, was the victim of a bias crime. Lafferty, who had spoken to Lee at the hospital, repeated this allegation when contacted by WW Monday.
Lee had been at a charity street party in North Portland called Prison Camp 2002 Saturday night and was still dressed as a guard when he was run over. Lafferty says Lee told him he exchanged words with a group of three young men and a woman in a gold sedan, who called him a "fag" before running him over at least twice.
"The only way we're going to bring these people to justice is to get some publicity," Lafferty told WW.
Lee, contacted in his hospital room, partially confirmed the story before he had to get off the line so his nurse could tend to him. "It was a hate crime, and I was run over with a car," he said.
The police, however, don't know what to think. According to public information officer Sgt. Brian Schmautz, Lee told officers who responded to his 911 call that his boyfriend ran him over.
Sources identified Lee's boyfriend as Jim Feild, a 46-year-old home remodeler who is prominent in Portland's gay community and co-organized Prison Camp 2002.
Contacted by WW and told that Lee had reportedly told police he was hit by his boyfriend, Feild responded by saying, "Well, who did he identify as that person?" (Police did not say whether Lee named Feild.)
Feild said he had last seen Lee that night at 2:30 am. As for the hit-and-run, he said, "I don't know anything about what happened."
Lafferty, for his part, speculates that Lee, drunk, dazed and traumatized, might have been talking nonsense to the police that night. Feild "absolutely" is not that sort of person, he said, and was at the party all night, anyway. Lafferty says he spoke with Lee on Tuesday, after talking to WW. He says, "When Tim heard that the police had misinterpreted him, he was like, 'Oh, no.'"
WWeek 2015