Hate crime charge dismissed for man who urinated on home's LGBTQ+ Pride flag
Watch a previous NBC4 report on the incident in the video player above.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A hate crime charge has been dismissed against the 21-year-old man who was caught on a home surveillance camera allegedly urinating on a LGBTQ+ Pride flag.
Charges of ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct were dismissed against the man on Wednesday, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records. Still, the man pleaded guilty to a criminal trespassing charge, a misdemeanor with a maximum jail sentence of 30 days. A judge also ordered him to pay a $250 fine and serve one year of probation.
The incident happened on the night of Feb. 8, and security camera video was posted online several days later. In the video, a man can be seen walking up the porch of a home in the Weinland Park area near the Ohio State University campus. Meanwhile, a second man stays at the bottom of the porch stairs, recording the incident on a cell phone.
The man on the porch then exposes himself and begins urinating on the pride flag, saying, "F*** the gays, f*** the gays," while holding up a middle finger. The man then bangs twice on the house's doors before the two men run from the scene.
After the video was posted, one of the victims said Columbus police contacted them.
"It was less than two hours, less than two hours because it exploded a little bit on Reddit," Zoe, one of the home's residents, told NBC4 in February. "Our major goal was just to have a record that something happened; it was less about pursuing, like, some sort of justice for the situation as it were because it's not exactly like it can be undone."
A Columbus police spokesman confirmed in February that the incident was being investigated as a hate crime. While the U.S. Department of Justice handles certain hate crime charges at the federal level, records show no case against the man was opened in one of its courts.
A spokesperson for LGBTQ+ advocacy group Stonewall Columbus said that while they were not familiar with the specifics of the incident, there is no place in Columbus for such acts.
"As a Columbus resident, I am disheartened to see people have such blatant disrespect for the property of others and as a community organization, we do hope that the individuals in question are swiftly caught and subject to whatever legal recourse there may be," Stonewall Columbus Executive Director Densil Porteous said in a statement. "We must work to ensure residents and visitors understand that our city is a welcoming and safe place and such acts are not welcome here.”