By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 29, 2006

SPRING, Tex., April 28 -- In 20 years, the neat subdivision of Dove Meadows has transformed painlessly from an all-white enclave into an advertisement for diversity: whites living next to blacks living next to Eastern European immigrants living next to Latinos living next to a gay couple -- an interracial gay couple.

The most egregious offenses these neighbors could recall of late were citations from the homeowners association for leaving trash cans on the curb after trash pickup day. Now they live on the street where one of the most horrendous crimes to occur in this north Houston suburb allegedly happened and which civil rights activists say was driven by ethnic hatred.

Last weekend, a 17-year-old Hispanic high school student was brutally beaten and savagely sodomized, authorities said, by two white teenagers who yelled ethnic epithets as they kicked a piece of plastic pipe into his rectum with their steel-toe boots.

"That might have been a racist attack, but this isn't a racist neighborhood," said Kenneth Armstrong, an African American who lives across the street from where the attack occurred early Sunday. The home where the attack occurred was rented by tenants who moved in about a year ago.

"This little strip is heaven," said Armstrong, who moved into the neighborhood 16 years ago. "We all get along; we're all multicultural."

Authorities said they are not sure if the attackers, both of whom have juvenile criminal records, were offended when the Hispanic teenager tried to kiss a girl who lives in the house where the attack occurred because she was only 12, or whether they were offended that the teenager was Hispanic and the girl was perceived as white (she has a grandparent who is Hispanic, authorities said).

What law enforcement officers do say is that the attack was fueled by alcohol and drugs: marijuana and large doses of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, one investigator said.

"I believe that alcohol and drugs had a major part to do with this. There might have been a false sense of bravado to defend the honor of the girl, but how this went from a simple kiss to the situation we're in, we really don't know," said Detective Michael Weinel of the sexual assault unit in the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

On Friday, the two suspects -- described by acquaintances as well-known bullies and troublemakers -- remained in jail, charged with aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony. County prosecutors said they will not seek hate crimes charges against David Henry Tuck, 18, and Keith Robert Turner, 17, although civil rights groups said there was no other motive for the attack.

"This clearly is a crime motivated by prejudice and bias against Hispanics," said Rick Dovalina, district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens. "No other reason exists for this crime to have been committed against this young boy."

Dovalina spoke at a news conference in Houston attended by the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Coalition for Civil Rights for Immigrants. Also on Friday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) called for a Justice Department investigation into whether the victim's civil rights had been violated.

"This is a Hispanic young man, but more importantly, this was done against the backdrop of a very divisive debate on immigration," Lee said.

But authorities said that a correlation between the attack and anti-immigrant or anti-Latino sentiment could not be proved.

"I don't know that the very beginning of the attack was racial, but there's no question that they were venting quite a bit of hatred in their hearts," said prosecutor Mike Trent, the Associated Press reported. He said that adding hate crime charges to the aggravated sexual assault charges would have no legal effect. Both are first-degree felonies.

Authorities said the attack occurred at the home of a 16-year-old friend of Turner's. Turner brought Tuck along with him for the evening, during which alcohol and drugs were consumed for several hours. Authorities said the host's mother was asleep in a bedroom and told officers later that she did not hear anything.

Investigators said Tuck and Turner dragged the Hispanic youth into the back yard between 5 and 8 a.m. Sunday, beat him with their fists and then, while he was on the ground, began kicking him in the head with their steel-toe boots. They then allegedly sodomized him with a plastic pipe from a patio table umbrella, while shouting ethnic slurs.

Prosecutors also said the victim had high levels of toxins in his organs, indicating the attackers may have poured bleach inside the pipe that was used to sodomize him. Doctors believe the youth passed out quickly and was unconscious for the final minutes of the attack.

The host's mother called 911 at 9:47 a.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff's office, after she awoke and discovered the unconscious youth. The victim has since remained unconscious at Memorial Hermann Hospital -- on a ventilator and, since Thursday, on dialysis.

If the victim dies, the charges against Tuck and Turner will be upgraded to capital murder because of the sexual assault, making Tuck eligible for the death penalty, authorities said. Turner is too young to be eligible for execution.

"This is one of the crimes the death penalty is designed for. To quote the Supreme Court, this is a crime that 'shocks the conscience,' " said Lt. John Denholm, commanding officer of the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division.

"You can't imagine doing this to a dumb animal, much less to a human being."