Brandon Staples, right, looks to Maine Assistant Attorney General Thomas Harnett, center, and Attorney General’s Office Civil Rights Detective Margie Berkovich in Androscoggin County Superior Courthouse library Thursday. The officials were seeking an injunction against Staples that would order him to stay away from his assault victim in connection with a hate crime incident last year.

AUBURN — Brandon Staples was ordered Thursday to stay away from a man he assaulted after the man left a gay bar last year.

Staples, 22, of Lewiston was at Androscoggin County Superior Court on Thursday where he agreed to the injunction barring him from having any contact with his victim.

Staples reached agreement with prosecutors on the terms of the injunction. He stood alone at the defense table Thursday, not represented by a lawyer.

He said he had talked to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Harnett about the case and the two had resolved the issue.

In the consent decree, Staples makes no admission of guilt.

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But he pleaded guilty last summer to misdemeanor assault in connection with the incident. He was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $300. A related robbery charge was dismissed.

Police said Staples, along with two other Lewiston men, attacked a man in March as he was leaving the Sportsman’s Athletic Club on Bates Street and was walking near Main and Blake Streets around midnight. That bar has since closed.

The three men, including Staples, started yelling at the victim who was unknown to them. They called him an offensive name and beat him with closed fists, according to court records. The victim fell to the ground and the three “kicked him while continually calling him … homophobic epithets,” according to court records.

Some people driving by in a car stopped to help the victim and later identified his assailants, court records said.

The victim, who has since moved out of state, suffered numerous facial injuries and a broken thumb. Harnett said the victim had cooperated with the state’s case against Staples but wasn’t needed in court Thursday.

Under the terms of the decree, Staples is prohibited from:

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• Threatening or using physical force against the victim;

• Threatening or using physical force or violence against anybody because of their sexual orientation;

• Damaging, destroying or trespassing on the property of the victim or his home;

• Damaging, destroying or trespassing on the property of anybody because of their sexual orientation;

• Threatening or using physical force, violence, harassment, damage to property or trespass on property against anybody because that person witnessed the conduct alleged in the complaint or because that person complained of or testified about that conduct or cooperated in any investigation about it;

• Harassing, intimidating, speaking to, telephoning or otherwise communicating with the victim, except through a lawyer in connection with Staples’ defense in any criminal proceeding;

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• Knowingly coming within 150 feet of the victim, his home or workplace;

• Encouraging or causing anybody else to engage in above conduct or helping any person to engage in such conduct.

If Staples were to violate the terms of the order, he could be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com


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