Police investigating 2 attacks near gay bar
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
Honolulu police detectives investigating the Sept. 18 assault of a man walking home from Hula's Bar and Lei Stand will meet this week to determine if there is any connection between that attack and the beating of a woman on her way to the same club just five days later.
The female tourist said she was attacked outside Hula's, a popular gay nightclub in Waikiki, by a man who first asked if she is a lesbian. When she said yes, the man hit her, she said in an interview yesterday.
Sketches of assailants of a female tourist
Detectives investigating the two attacks have not conferred yet because one of them is working on a case on the Mainland, said Det. Larry Lawson, who is handling the most recent assault.
Lawson said he has no leads and is hoping that the public will come forward with information about suspects. Only then will detectives know if the cases are linked by anti-gay hostilities.
"Whether it is one ethnic group or another or one persuasion or another, no one deserves to be beaten up," Lawson said.
CrimeStoppers has released four composite sketches of suspects, two in each attack.
In the Sept. 18 assault, Dr. Tim Noreuil, a doctor from Missouri who owns a condominium here, suffered 30 fractures to the right side of his face after he was hit from behind with an unidentified object. Noreuil was walking home from Hula's when three men walked by him and made eye contact before one of them doubled back and hit him.
Last week, Noreuil said that he did not think his attack was based on the issue of sexual orientation because the attackers made no derogatory remarks.
Sketches of assailants from Sept. 17 attack on Tim Noreuil.
On Thursday, 25-year-old Pamela Disel, of Oklahoma City, was walking to Hula's with two friends from Ireland when they were approached by two men trying to get their attention.
Disel said the men asked them if they were lesbians.
One woman said no, and Disel and a third said yes, even though the other woman is not a lesbian, Disel said. Disel said she corrected the woman by telling the men that she was the only lesbian in the group.
The three women continued to walk and one man continued taunting them, she said.
If you have information about either of the assaults, contact CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or dial *CRIME on your cell phone.
"I told him I wasn't worried about it," Disel said. "He told me, 'You should be.' "
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Disel said that's when she was hit hard across the right side of her face. The next thing she remembers is sitting on the sidewalk spitting blood. Her companions, Michelle Lillis and Anne Marie, said they did not see her get hit, but saw her on the ground.
Disel suffered severe facial injuries that will require surgery, police said. She was treated at The Queen's Medical Center after the assault. Yesterday, her right eye was still swollen almost shut, and evidence of stitches on her upper lip were visible.
"I'm from Oklahoma and would think it (an attack based on sexual orientation) would happen there before here," she said. "Hawai'i is presented to us as a place that is safe for us (homosexuals) and for all tourists. Right now, it is not safe."
A marketing representative for Hula's yesterday said that the bar had no comment about the cases.
Carolyn Golojuch, president of Parents Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said she believes some attacks go unreported because many homosexuals don't want to draw attention to themselves.
"People are scared of coming out and singling themselves out," Golojuch said. "I am appalled but not surprised."
While Hawai'i has a state law that addresses hate crimes, it is only applicable at the sentencing level and must be proved as a separate element in court in order to be implemented, said Jim Fulton, aide to City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle.
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.
