Latin King Gay Rape Victim Speaks Out

Original story appeared as Bronx Gay Rape Victim Speaks Out

 

It started when a 17 year old who is the grandson of Vic Power, one of the first black and Latino players to hit the major leagues, bumped into “Cheto”, a local thug and leader of the Latin King Goonies.  The youth was leaving the apartment of a well known Bronx resident, “La Reina”, “the Queen”.

What is a Latin King Goonie recruit doing in the apartment of a gay man? Cheto wanted to know.  

Idelfonzo “Cheto” Mendez, Nelson Falu, David Rivera and Jose Dominguez dragged the teen to a Morris Heights apartment.  They forced the boy to strip naked, and tied him to a chair for interrogation.

“Are you a fag?” they asked.  When they didn’t get the answer they wanted, they beat the youth.  During the two hour session, they raped the youth, using the handle to a plunger.

“Do you like it?” Cheto asked the terrified boy as he slid the plunger in and out of the boy’s anus.  “Are you a fag?”

Finally, the youth confessed.  He had sex with La Reina.  More, a potential recruit, also 17, was La Reina’s lover.

Satisfied, Cheto told the boy he had to be punished for having gay sex.

“Do you want the pipe or the bat?”

If the boy hated himself enough, the pipe would do plenty of damage.  He chose the bat, which was plastic.  The gang gave him a ritualized whipping.   With the score settled, the gang offered to take him to the hospital.  He was, after all, one of their own.

Before leaving, Rivera hit the boy in the head with a paint can, snarling, "If you snitch, your family is gonna get it!"

"It gets me angry that they beat me because these were my friends. We were like family. We went to church together. They just turned on me." the 17 year old said in an interview with the Washington Post.

"They told me the beating was not personal," the youth said, as the gang offered to let him remain in the gang.  "It was just that I violated one of the rules.” 

Gay sex is against the rules in most gangs.  The gang later attacked La Reina, his 17 year old boyfriend and La Reina’s brother.  The attack on La Reina was especially vicious, lasting over 10 hours.  His lover was forced to burn his nipples and penis with a lighted cigarette.  La Reina was sodomized with a plastic baseball bat, likely the same one used to beat the first 17 year old.

The 17 year old says he is not gay.  

"Gangs are no good for anyone," the teen said. "Being in a gang will get you nowhere."

Confused youth often seek older gay men for homosexual experiences in an effort to sort out their own feelings.   If this 17 year old is gay, coming to terms with his feelings will be difficult, after suffering the vicious face of hate for the LGBT community.

BuzzNet Tags: 17 year old bronx,bronx gang,latin king goonies,cheto,gay bullying,gay teens,teen suicide,gang members charged,hate crime