On August 18, 2006 Dwayne Buckle was allegedly assaulted and stabbed outside of the IFC Center movie theater in Greenwich Village by a group of seven women from Essex, New Jersey.^[1]. Four of these women were subsequently tried and convicted although the two of the convictions were overturned on appeal and the other two appeals are still pending.

The fact that the women are lesbians has caused them to become a cause celebre in the gay/lesbian community where they are often referred to as the "Newark 4" or the "Jersey 4".^[2][3] Dwayne Buckle has cast the incident as a "hate crime committed against a straight man."^{[citation needed]}

The assault

As reported by the conventional media and much of the independent press, the events proceeded in the following sequence.

Dwayne Buckle was selling copies of his DVD to pedestrians. Buckle hailed one of the women with 'some comment', allegedly "hi". Whatever the comment, that woman rebuked his advance. Verbal assaults and obscene gestures followed, including a threat to "fuck her straight." Apparently having been pursued for some time, one of the women stopped and confronted the man. Buckle, spitting aggressively, eventually threw a lit cigarette at the woman which prompted a conflict.

Here the stories diverge. An article posted on FIERCE!^[4], a community organization for Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Queer, and Questioning (TLGBTSQQ) youth of color in New York City, written by Imani Henry, a concerned community member ^[5] describes Buckle assaulting the women:

grabbing and pulling out large patches of hair from one of the young women. When Buckle ended up on top of one of the women, choking her, Johnson pulled a small steak knife out of her purse. She aimed for his arm to stop him from killing her friend.

This description is apparently substantiated by a surveillance video tape, which then shows

two men finally running over to help the women and beating Buckle. At some point he was stabbed in the abdomen. The women were already walking away across the street by the time the police arrived.

During the melee Buckle was allegedly stabbed with a small steak knife by Patreese Johnson, resulting in a lacerated liver and severed stomach.

Here also reports diverge. Patreese Johnson claims to have aimed for the arm while Buckle was choking her friend. The knife she was holding is described in some reports as bloodied, although this does not appear in the more prominent articles. Apparently the knife held by Patricia Johnson did not appear to be bloodied, and was not even forensically examined (During the trial officers testified that there was no visible blood on the knife, nor was the crime seen as serious enough to do any testing ^[6]). The videotape shows Johnson swinging the weapon at Buckle, but it is not clear from the tape if this is where the victim acquired his injuries.

The mainstream media reported the event including two other men entering the fray a "a second flare-up", allegedly instigated by Renata Hill.^{[7] [8]}

Conviction and sentencing

The judge called Venice Brown, 19, “an aggressor who ran after the victim” and sentenced her to five years. He said the videotape showed her “punching and pulling” Buckle during the fight.

In April 2007, three of the four were serving six-month jail terms for attempted assault. The other four of the women are on trial charged with first-degree gang-assault. Patreese Johnson, who allegedly stabbed Buckle, was also being charged with attempted murder (she was acquitted) ). The four women were convicted April 18, 2007.^[9][10][11]

On June 14, 2007, the four women were sentenced to prison:

• Patreese Johnson, 11 years
• Renata Hill, 8 years
• Venice Brown, 5 years
• Terrain Dandridge, 3 and 1/2 years^[12]

Renata Hill, 25, was sentenced to eight years. The judge said Hill was "seen re-instigating the event (fight) when it’s over."McLaughlin said that if it’s true Buckle was stabbed in the second flare-up, Hill “bears some responsibility.”

Terrain Dandridge subsequently had her conviction reversed on appeal, and Renata Hill won the right to a new trial.^[13]. As of June 30, 2008, the other two appeals were still pending.^[14]

Media coverage

Independent media and gay advocacy organizations ^[15][16] have decried the stance taken by the media and the response by the judicial system to be colored and rotten with homophobic politics. They describe numerous discrepancies in the reported story and the way the girls are portrayed, such as producing only the most masculine or deranged images for the story, often not of the more involved alleged assailants (who would be considered more feminine). The stories are commonly reported with, it is claimed, an observable homophobic bias. Their representation is not of a straight man targeted in a hate crime by lesbian women, but lesbian women targeted in a hate crime by a straight man.

Buckle's story was featured on The O'Reilly Factor. Buckle claims he is beginning work on a documentary on hate crimes committed against straight men.^{[citation needed]}

References