Suspect Charged in Corktown Beating/Dragging

[Danny]

He's entitled to his day in court. Let the jury decide.

The Corktown man is guilty as sin through the eyes of God. Man don't have to see the crime.

[BrushStart]

The Corktown man is guilty as sin through the eyes of God. Man don't have to see the crime.

Thank you for the divine insight.

[dookie joe]

detroitsgwenivere


detroitsgwenivere: If the earlier assault happened in front of several witnesses, why couldn't the authorities have prosecuted him without the homeless men's testimony?

If that many people saw the attack, he still could've been convicted. After all, had it been a murder, the victims wouldn't be able to take the witness stand.

[detroitsgwenivere]

detroitsgwenivere


detroitsgwenivere: If the earlier assault happened in front of several witnesses, why couldn't the authorities have prosecuted him without the homeless men's testimony?

If that many people saw the attack, he still could've been convicted. After all, had it been a murder, the victims wouldn't be able to take the witness stand.

Not sure, I'm not a lawyer. I'd be willing to bet it had to do with a) the police's willingness to pursue the case, b) Steve's family connections, c) The fact that these guys are homeless, making them unreliable witnesses. I do know there were people willing to come forward but either they never heard from the detectives after the fact, or they were too scared to put their names and faces into the fracus, especially after they heard Steve was being released. Also, some of us subscribe to stopsnitching magazine if you catch my drift. I did hear a rumor that Kim Worthy's office is looking to re-open the case, and we all know how much Detroit loves to re-open closed cases.

I also heard that Steve was jumped after the previous assault.

Boy, I hear a lot of stuff around here. Please remember I was not present at either alleged assault, and received this info second hand from people who were. But I will say that the accounts of these events were told to me exactly the same way buy everyone who repeated them.

[Lowell]

This is so sickening. It is chillingly reminiscent of infamous James Byrd murder in Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd,_Jr.

Like it or not it sounds to me like the alleged assailant has a shot at beating this on grounds of untreated mental illness, especially since he seems to have money for defense.

There are so many angry and frustrated people in our society. It seems like the internet and recent politics have given them an outlet for their seething anger. They need help but there is no help left and many of them become our homeless.

[Detroitnerd]

This has gotta be a big black eye for Corktown, that one of the local yokels was so unhinged, and also that people who're trying to build up Corktown haven't distanced themselves from this guy earlier.

[kraig]

This has gotta be a big black eye for Corktown, that one of the local yokels was so unhinged, and also that people who're trying to build up Corktown haven't distanced themselves from this guy earlier.

Don't worry, just about everyone in the City is familiar enough with Corktown to not let one isolated person be the poster boy for the area.

[bartock]

Not sure, I'm not a lawyer. I'd be willing to bet it had to do with a) the police's willingness to pursue the case, b) Steve's family connections, c) The fact that these guys are homeless, making them unreliable witnesses. I do know there were people willing to come forward but either they never heard from the detectives after the fact, or they were too scared to put their names and faces into the fracus, especially after they heard Steve was being released. Also, some of us subscribe to stopsnitching magazine if you catch my drift. I did hear a rumor that Kim Worthy's office is looking to re-open the case, and we all know how much Detroit loves to re-open closed cases.

I also heard that Steve was jumped after the previous assault.

Boy, I hear a lot of stuff around here. Please remember I was not present at either alleged assault, and received this info second hand from people who were. But I will say that the accounts of these events were told to me exactly the same way buy everyone who repeated them.

It this guy told you that he was going to get the homeless man before he did it, the police and the prosecutors will want to talk with you. That's potentially a really important bit of evidence.

[n7hn]

Sometime's people active in the community are just hostile control freaks. NOt so much really about community, just being right and getting things their way, PERIOD

[kryptonite]

I have been friends with Mr. DiPonio for thirty years. Granted, I only run into him every few years anymore. His assault against the homeless man was wrong. No matter how frustrated you are with a situation, taking the law into your own hands is not the approach. Beating someone with an object such as a baseball bat, dragging them in the street - those are not logial approaches to the problem.

I am fortunate that my current city has no problem with homeless people, if I did live around them I might also find them frustrating or dangerous. I am often approached by them and sometimes harassed by them in downtown Detoit. But I have never considered attacking them whem I am confronted by them.

What Steve did was not the way to deal with the situation. he commited a crime and is likely to pay for it. None of my past experiences with him have ever been negative. I knew he was not the type of person to tolerate any BS from someone, but I never imagined he would launch an unprovoked attack on another person.

[ruxy17]

Kryptonite said "I am fortunate that my current city has no problem with homeless people, if I did live around them I might also find them frustrating or dangerous. I am often approached by them and sometimes harassed by them in downtown Detoit."

I live on Church Street in Corktown, half a block from St. Peters, where meals are served to the homeless. In the summer when I'm outside in my garden or on my porch, I often see homeless men and women walking down my street. They are invariably kind, warm, smiling and NEVER ask me for money or a smoke. I say hello, they say hello or wave or smile and keep on keepin' on. One man always walks in the middle of the street instead of on the sidewalk, and I asked him once why and he said that he wanted to respect the neighborhood, didn't want to "dirty up the sidewalks with his smelly ass," he said laughing. He said something to the effect that Corktown was good to him, and that he, in turn, wanted to be good to Corktown.

I think its important to note that "homeless" does NOT necessarily equal "beggar" or "panhandler." The homeless people, for the most part in Corktown, are not the same "type" as you see in Eastern Market, or around Cobo or at Comerica Park. And for the few times I've been approached heading into the Marathon on Michigan Ave or the beer store on Trumbull and Bagley, it was never harassing or intimidating. Just "hey sweetie, you got a quarter to spare?" "Sorry, no." "No worries, God Bless."

Harassment from panhandlers and beggars can be "frustrating and intimidating." But homeless people aren't necessarily beggars and beggars aren't necessarily homeless. Homeless Detroiters are NOT inherrently "frustrating and intimidating." I think its dangerous to assume that because someone is homeless, they must be criminals or dangerous or willing to chase you down the street for your spare change. I'm pretty sure that Mr. DiPonio made these kinds of assumptions, and we know how that turned out.

[Sparky]

As a Corktown resident, I'd like to respond to the foolishness above.

First of all, there is no excuse for anyone to be sleeping anywhere outside in this neighborhood. There is plenty of room in the city where people can stay without bothering the taxpaying citizens who live in the neighborhood. No one who lives here should have to put up with the homeless people rummaging through their trash and crapping in their alleys, with all of the public drinking and drug use, or with people like Rebecca. In fact, my neighbors had to build a fence around their house just to keep Rebecca off of their front porch. What do the police do? If they bother to show up, their attitudes are “what do you want me to do about it?” You’re the police, do your job.

Second, I have personally watched people selling drugs outside of Bagley Trumbull Market, and I have personally seen people smoking crack in Savage Park on Trumbull. That park is completely unusable to Corktown residents due to the homeless camping out and people smoking crack.

Third, the property crime is widespread and didn't only start after the Gateway project began. You can't blame everything on Matty Moroun. I'm afraid to have overnight guests park on the street for fear that some idiot will break into their car or steal their catalytic converter. All the garages face the alley and anything of value in a garage won't last long. The Cooleys opened a public parking lot and they need to hire private security to defend it even in broad daylight. For god's sake, someone stole my neighbor's Courville container!

And it's not just property crime. How many shootings have their been at Hoot's over the past few years? How many muggings in the parking lots along Michigan Avenue?

If you think all of this is ok, please come and buy my house so I can live somewhere that doesn't resemble a third world country. I seriously think that some of you are living in a fantasy world.

So many are focused on DiPonio when the real problem is that this neighborhood is not at all a nice place to live, even though we have Slow’s. And DiPonio will not be the first person to fly off the handle due to all the BS that goes down around here. We can only take so much.

By the way, DiPonio never had his house firebombed, and detroitsgwenivere can’t possibly live across the street from him unless she lives at Clement Kern Garden [[which, like it or not, is a big source of the drug trade in the neighborhood).

[Meddle]

Yeah, OK Steve. Whatever.

[Detroitnerd]

As a Corktown resident, I'd like to respond to the foolishness above....

I was waiting, but you never got to the point where you said it was OK to beat homeless people to death or drag their carcasses around. I take it that's only implied by your remarks ...

[JStone]

What Diponio did is inexcusable and unacceptable.

That said, if residents did not feel so helpless and isolated [[in regards to police intervention) when dealing with things such as, public intoxication, public urination/defecation, loitering, door to door panhandling, littering, etc, along with more serious issues like assault, burglary, and auto theft, then perhaps someone "cracking" like Diponio could be avoided.

That's all I'm saying.

I agree that most of Corktown's homeless are harmless and generally respectable to residents, although I don't necessarily agree that grown men/women should be allowed to loiter about all day, eat free food and drink beer by the side of the road while the "addressable" residents leave to earn a living.

That being said - Rebecca is an exception and is what I consider, a neighborhood terrorist who essentially has held residents hostage for years. I certainly wish the State would step in and help this woman because she needs help.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Well Sparky, you're entitled to your opinions as we all are. I'm just relaying what the talk of the town is, and what I've personally dealt with living on this corner. I do in fact live across the street from Steve, and not in Clement Kerns by the way. If you are so unhappy with your living situation that you regard this community as third world, than by all means move.

And MY neighbors who built the fence in front of their home did so after having it burglerized in broad daylight [[not by homeless but by a blue Durango driving *sshole), and the police failing to show up while the crime was in progress.

Rebecca is a person who has some mental issues of her own and is basically harmless. She just has a tendency to get very beligerant when shes intoxicated. The Corktown Market refuses to allow her into their store. And by the way, what do you propose the market does about drug deals in the parking lot of their store? There are thousands of drug deals going on everyday in every party store parking lot in this city. Maybe this notion that Corktown Market should somehow be isolated from these types of things is your particular fantasy thinking.

Steve did get his house fire bombed on the side facing the alley, he told me himself and so did residents of Clement Kerns, and was seen repairing it over the last few years.

As far as Savage Park goes, some of us used to hang out there next to the crack smokers just to talk and to find out which individuals were in need of particular services. We don't judge people for doing drugs, just for harming others to feed an addiction. It was when Steve decided to cut out the benches and destroy public property that the park became unbearable.

Crime has significantly picked up since the closing of the freeway, which also coincides with the downturn of the economy. I'm sure there was plenty of crime before, just not on this large of a scale in recent memory.

Hoot's changed owners, and the amount of booze they pour into their drinks

I agree that there are definitely some unpleasantries when dealing with homeless, but they are not the biggest issue we have to worry about in Corktown, as your post has effectively proven.

[East Detroit]

Wow, this thread has really changed my mind about Corktown. I thought it was an oasis of activists and organizers painting up their cool homes and watching out for each other. Sounds more like 7 Mile and Gratiot.

[mikefmich]

Wow, this thread has really changed my mind about Corktown. I thought it was an oasis of activists and organizers painting up their cool homes and watching out for each other. Sounds more like 7 Mile and Gratiot.

I'd live in Corktown for a year, rather than live at 7 & Gratiot for a month for free.

Nice broad brushes you have, would you paint my garage next spring?

[JStone]

Shootings at Hoots? I was unaware.

I wonder what the corner will be like when the 24-hour drive through coney opens on Michigan and Trumbull.

In the last 1.5 years I have been hit 3 times - Home, Garage, and Auto. The previous 8 years I've never had a problem. I agree crime is back on the rise. I can tell you that the police response has been pretty good for all of my issues and they have responded twice within 15 minutes the last two times I have called regarding Rebecca. Most of my interactions with the DPD have been positive, of which I'm very thankful for.

detroitsgwenivere - I think Sparky was trying to say that he can't move - he's underwater maybe? I guess the more money you have tied up in something, the more it wears on one as they just can't "up and move" without getting foreclosed on. If you rent or have your house paid off because you may have bought at a time when property around Corktown was very cheap, then that may be a factor in how you view the neighborhood. I guess what I'm saying is, the more you had to invest to live there, the more you have to lose. Crack heads in the park may not seem so bad if you don't have a mortgage to pay or plan on raising kids nearby, but it is a serious consideration if you do. No matter how good ones intentions for tolerating a situation may be, the bottom line [[in my opinion) is that having/enabling/allowing that type of element to exist in your neighborhood, can only lead to more crime, blight, and an overall sluggish/stagnant influx of money, investment, people, business, etc. There is no Utopia.

It's a matter of opinion right? Do we want Corktown to stay the same? Or do we want more development? More residents and businesses? More BBQ!!?? I'm all for peace and love, but I also see the other side of things. Not everybody has just had "bad breaks". Some people are just no good, no matter how much you try and help them.

[SWMAP]

For awhile there I thought that the homeless in Corktown were a different breed from the homeless over here in Junction region. Yours were all smiley & sweet and ours steal everything loose while we're at work and asleep - even aluminum doors right off houses, not to mention copper, etc. Ours run drugs for a few bucks and steal purses outside of stores and get away on their stolen bikes. But then again, not too many residents over here are sitting in the park with them chatting them up to learn what "services" they need while they do drugs. Ibises we could have sat with our homeless in the camp under the freeway overpass that was their base for sometime, but it was a HAZMAT situation, as it turned out.

[chitaku]

What's the deal with Clement Kern? I know they are low income apts but that's about it. Are there problems in there a lot?

[DetroitHabitater]

Corktown homeless are no exception. Most of them are great nice people who want to have a nice conversation with you and are super friendly.

Others litter in your bushes, defecate/urinate in your alleys, and are passed out drunk in my front yard. I've seen them drop whole bags of garbage in an empty lot or even in the middle of the street. I had one try to scam me with the 'gift card with receipt' scam.

Everyone of them tries to convince me they are a master carpenter.

And others have given me tips when someone was casing my house and tell me how nice they think my renovation is.

It's a mixed bag.

I'm all for the soup kitchens in our neighborhood, I just wish everyone could respect the neighborhood a little more.

I called the Manna soup kitchen to see if we could work out a solution of some of these issues and I was 100% blown off. -Which is a little ironic on account any one of my other neighbors would go far out of their way to help me.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Correction- After speaking with individuals more familiar with this situation, it was made known to me that Steve may not be receiving financial and legal help from his family, but from some very interesting outside parties. Not allowed to say who, but the sh*ts getting real thick around here. When more concrete facts come through, I'll keep you guys posted.

Why is it that anytime people want to bring up development as a positive in Corktown they site Slows as their shining example? There are so many good things happening and developing around here, like Spaulding Court, The Imagination Station, and the redevelopment of the old pawn shop store fronts. Though none are complete, they are all examples of what's great in this part of town, and the best part is two of those projects were created by people who didn't have much to start with. I mean, Slow's is successful and all, but damn!

And for those who are unaware, Manna Meals is by far not the only provider of services to the less fortunate around here. There is a soup kitchen and men's shelter on MI ave, a rehab on Fort, a woman's shelter north of 75, and discounted rooms for rent at Corktown Inn. Like I said before, 150+ years and counting. DHab, I'm wondering what exactly you were hoping to work out with St. Peter's regarding the homeless, and what exactly was that deal supposed to help? If you don't mind me asking...

[Meddle]

some very interesting outside parties. Not allowed to say who, but the sh*ts getting real thick around here. When more concrete facts come through, I'll keep you guys posted.


Maroun?
Kilpatrick?
Illitch?

[Sparky]

There are so many good things happening and developing around here, like Spaulding Court, The Imagination Station, and the redevelopment of the old pawn shop store fronts. Though none are complete, they are all examples of what's great in this part of town, and the best part is two of those projects were created by people who didn't have much to start with. I mean, Slow's is successful and all, but damn!

Uhh, maybe because they're not complete? Maybe because they are abandoned eyesores?

And for those who are unaware, Manna Meals is by far not the only provider of services to the less fortunate around here. There is a soup kitchen and men's shelter on MI ave, a rehab on Fort, a woman's shelter north of 75, and discounted rooms for rent at Corktown Inn.

And we've got all the crack vials, heroin needles, broken alcohol bottles, piles of crap in the alleys, scrapped metal, broken car windows, garbage strewn about, etc. to prove it. Only in Detroit would people think this is ok.

To add to JStone's list above, in the past 4 years, I've had 2 cars broken into, 2 catalytic converters stolen, my garage and my house broken into, my garage sprayed with graffiti and materials scrapped off of my garage. Only in Detroit would this be considered a nice place to live.

By any normal, middle class person's standards, Corktown is a sh*thole. Let's not pretend otherwise. I'm sure in Steve's crazy mind he was doing what he thought he had to do to clean up the neighborhood. Let's hope that no one else reaches their breaking point like he did.