BY ANDREW GROSSMAN AND JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily Staff Reporters
Published September 3, 2007
For what may have been a crime motivated by anti-gay bias, a University of Michigan student and another man were arraigned in Washtenaw County court on Friday.
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The suspects allegedly shouted homophobic slurs and threw a dresser drawer from an apartment balcony at two men walking below.
Cody Williamson, 22, and Michael A. Brown, a 21-year-old University of Michigan student in the College of Engineering, were each charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault and battery.
A 24-year old Ann Arbor resident, whose name police have not released, told police that he and a friend were walking on the 700 block of East Ann Street early Thursday morning when several people began shouting anti-gay slurs from a second-floor balcony.
The man told police a piece of wooden furniture had smashed onto the pavement a few feet behind him.
Police found broken pieces of a drawer on the sidewalk, said Sgt. Brad Hill of the Ann Arbor Police Department. Inside the apartment, officers arrested Brown and Williamson.
Bond for each was set at $25,000. They have both been released from custody.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 1 p.m.
On Friday afternoon, Jackie Simpson, director of the University's Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Affairs, sent an e-mail to students on LGBT mailing lists about the incident.
"Such events have a chilling and frightening impact on the LGBT and Ally Communities," Simpson wrote in the e-mail, which was co-signed by University Dean of Students Sue Eklund and her senior assistant, Sharon Vaughters. "We want to reassure the community that this situation has our full attention."
Simpson said in an interview that it is not common for people in Ann Arbor to be physically threatened because of their sexual orientation.
"I don't think this particular incident is an indicator of the climate of Ann Arbor or the University," she said.
Williamson refused to comment for this story. Brown could not be reached for comment.
Ann Arbor police said Williamson is also a University of Michigan student, but he is not listed in the University's directory. He is, however, listed in Eastern Michigan University's online student directory.
According to court records, Williamson and Brown live in an apartment on East Ann Street.
