In August 2006, Dwayne Buckle, a man selling DVD’s on the street, propositioned seven young women from Newark, New Jersey (Patreese, Chanese, Venice, Lania, Renata, Terrain, and Khamysha), as they walked down a street in the West Village in New York City. His first remark, which he directed to Patreese, who has been described as looking as though she were fourteen years old, was “Let me get some of that.” Thinking he was homeless, Patreese asked if he was referring to her soda. Buckle replied, “No, some of that,” pointing to the area below her waist. His gesture incited several of the young women to yell back. They said that they were lesbians and were not interested. He continued his harassment, saying that he would “fuck them straight,” that he would “turn them all straight.” He then flicked his cigarette and spit at Renata. A fight broke out.

The girls consistently maintain that they acted only when Dwayne had one them by the neck or hair, at which point one of the others would try to get her free. But as they freed one girl from his grip, Dwayne would grab at another. Throughout, he yelled homophobic slurs and threatened the girls with sexual assault. The melee was caught on film by a video surveillance camera at a nearby movie theater. At one point a number of bystanders are seen joining in the fight in defense of the young women. At no time did anyone jump in to defend Dwayne, making it clear that the witnesses considered him to be the aggressor.

Once they were all extricated from the fight, the girls went to a McDonalds to collect themselves before heading back home to New Jersey. A number of them had suffered injuries: Chanese had had a handful of dreadlocks ripped from her scalp, Venice and Lania had also had hair pulled out, Renata had a bloody lip, and both Renata and Venice had bruises around their necks where Dwayne had choked them.

Dwayne Buckle spent five days in the hospital. He was treated for a stab wound to the abdomen. In his initial statement to the doctors he reported that he had been stabbed by one of two men who had jumped him during the fight. Indeed, the theater camera shows two men beating Dwayne after the women left. One man is shown on top of him, and witnesses have said that the other man took off his belt and beat Dwayne about the head with the belt buckle. But Dwayne changed his story in court and testified that it was one of the women who had stabbed him. Witnesses could not corroborate the time of the stabbing, and Patreese, who carried a steak knife in her purse for protection, was eventually charged with attempted murder. The authorities never tested Patreese’s knife to see if it actually had been the weapon. Nor did the police ever look for the two men who had beaten Dwayne or investigate whether, as he had told the doctors, one of the men had stabbed him.

As a result of their fight with Dwayne, all seven of the girls were arrested as they left McDonalds and immediately taken to jail on Riker’s Island. Eventually, three of the seven accepted plea bargains; they agreed to plead guilty to gang assault in the third degree (a felony) in exchange for sentences of six months incarceration and five years probation. The other four (who became known as the New Jersey Four) pleaded not guilty. They were tried on charges of various degrees of gang assault and assault, and all were convicted. They received sentences ranging from three and a half to eleven years in prison. None of these women had a prior criminal record.

Toward the end of 2008, the First District Appellate Court in New York heard the appeals of the New Jersey Four, with the following results.

Terrain, age nineteen at the time of the incident (originally sentenced to three and a half years), saw the charges against her dismissed after she had already served almost two years. She was immediately released and remains the only one of the seven without a felony conviction.

Venice, age eighteen (originally sentenced to five years), was granted a retrial. She was bailed out in October 2008 and has recently accepted a plea agreement of attempted gang assault (a felony), calling for twenty-six months time served and five years post-release supervision.

Renata, age twenty-four (originally sentenced to eight years), was granted a retrial on her gang assault conviction. She was bailed out in late August 2008. In March she accepted a plea agreement that called for her to serve an additional year and a half in prison and five years post-release supervision. She will turn herself in on May 4th, 2009, to begin serving the remaining year. She is also currently fighting for custody of her seven-year-old son.

Patreese, age nineteen (originally sentenced to eleven years), had her sentence reduced to eight years “in the interest of justice.”

Lania (nineteen years old), Chanese (nineteen years old), and Khamysha (twenty-seven years old) all accepted plea bargains in 2006 and were sentenced to six months incarceration followed by five years probation.

A sample of headlines illustrating some of the more shameful media coverage of the incident is listed below. Although many blogs and independent journalists reported favorably about the women, only negative articles are included here because of their critical role in sparking the director’s interest in and outrage over the story of the New Jersey Seven’s case. It is important to acknowledge that such egregious and biased coverage helps create a dangerous and discriminatory environment, especially in this case, where the women had specifically sought out a safe space.

New York Times

• AUGUST 19TH, 2006 Man Is Stabbed in Attack After Admiring a Stranger

NY POST

• APRIL 12TH, 2007 Attack of the Killer Lesbians

DAILY NEWS

• APRIL 13TH, 2007 ‘I’m a man!’ lesbian growled during fight
• JUNE 15TH, 2007 Pack howls – judge won’t bend
• APRIL 19TH, 2007 Lesbian wolf pack guilty

BLOGS & ONLINE POSTS

• Attack of the “seething sapphic septet”
• Ornery but Petit Lesbians Attack

*This information was compiled from public media sources.