A Note from Indie: I am not the author of this story. I simply wish to share the harsh reality of what was done to James Hornik, back in 2009. He has given me his permission to do so, and bring light to to his fight. Please support him.
A WARNING: This story contains James' experience of rape and sexual assault. Please note this, and if you feel uncomfortable or if you feel this article may be a trigger for some of your own experiences I urge to consider that carefully before reading on.
Rape & Homophobia goes hand in hand
by James Hornik
This is my story:
I had been staying in Hollywood to work and hang with friends for much of the month of August, and all was well besides the typical drama one would find in such a big city where people never seem to sleep.
On the night of August 29th 2009 I decided to get a bed at the Orange street hostel right off of Hollywood blvd. I checked in and got my key, went to my room and met my roommate for the evening, a young slightly attractive Australian guy traveling California as he writes songs for an album he hopes to make one day. After the typical introductions our conversation quickly became sexual as he kept asking questions about my sexuality and bedroom preferences. I was really tired and totally not interested in sex, so I left to take a very long shower in the hopes he would be asleep by the time I return. I took my usual sleeping pills and was quite clumsy by the time I got back to the room. I stumbled into the room and got into bed wearing some green Adidas shorts, my favorite green T shirt, socks and of course some underwear. I hardly remember hitting the pillow after looking for my phone charger without luck, so I set my alarm for 9am since I needed to be up.
I woke up the next morning completely nude with only my underwear around one ankle, my shorts and shirt were missing, the blankets on my bed were gone and looked to be piled up on the bed of the Australian guy, and he was nowhere to be found.
I frantically jumped up still unsure how I had ended up naked and without any blankets, it was then I realized I had lube on my penis and between my butt cheeks; I was also bleeding a little bit. By then I was just absolutely in a total panic, yet sure I was going to wake up from this terrible nightmare any second. W.T.F. had happened last night, where's my clothes, where's my phone, and WHY do I have lube and blood on me. I’m now at the point of fighting back tears as I walk to the front desk to find out when my roommate had left and if I could get his name because at that point I realized I had been raped and needed to call 911.
I told the lady at the front desk I had been taken advantage of in my sleep, my phone and clothes I was wearing last night were missing and that I believe it was my roommate from room 10, she directed me to the pay phone to call 911. I called 911 and proceeded to wait. While I waited I sent out some emails to family and friends saying I needed help and that my phone was gone. At this point I hadn’t told anyone else about the rape. I was still trying to come to terms with it myself.
I waited for nearly 3 and a half hours, the police never showed up, so I reviewed the cameras with the lady at the front desk looking to see if the guy had anything in his hands as he walked out of our room. We couldn’t see much but she then pointed out he had left his bags right there next to the front desk and had left in a rush without paying for the room.
My mindset was that this guy knew he was in trouble and took my phone so I wouldn’t wake up, this way he could buy himself as much time as possible to get away. The lady at the front desk gave me his full name and even wrote it down on my receipt from the deposit I had paid on the room the night before. I let her know where I was going to be if he wanted his bag back. So I grabbed his suit case and walked out and waited at the address I said I would be at.
Another 3 hours passes and finally the cops walk up, and the lead investigative officer asked me if this is my bag. I immediately let them know I was holding the bag because this guy had taken my blackberry and sexually assaulted me in my sleep. It was all downhill from there. The cops couldn’t understand why I had shared a room with this guy and how the sex wasn’t consensual because we had shared a room. Despite me telling them time after time it’s a hostel and I don’t get to choose my roommates there. I don’t know this guy, never seen him before last night, and I had not chosen to have sex with him. Someone sitting at the same table as me spoke out in my defense and tried to explain to the officers how a hostel works, but they only threatened this person with arrest should they interfere with an ongoing investigation.
In cuffs the Australian guy and I were taken back to the hostel while they investigated things. Once the cop printed out a photo of me walking out with the bag from the hostels security system he didn’t care why I had taken it.
He flat out told me “a gay man can’t be raped” It was at that point I lost it and started to cry, plead and argue with him, saying that had he taken sleeping pills, passed out, and I then undressed him and had sex with him that YES it would be rape because he wasn’t able to consent. He told me to shut up because I was going to jail for felony theft and he didn’t want to hear another word out of my mouth.
I then was placed in the cop car to await transport to jail. During this time I realized nothing was going happen to the guy who raped me last night and I was going to jail for theft, and all I had done was taken this guys bag to hold it and confront him. He got everything back but insisted I had taken a huge list of items from him totaling some $3,110.00
Handcuffed, crying for help while in total disbelief, as I sat in the back of the police car, I took my sleeping pills out of my pocket and swallowed the whole bottle, the cops noticed once I started to pass out and saw some pills I had missed scattered around on the floor or the car. They called for an ambulance to take me to Cedar Sinai hospital. While there I told my story to everyone who would listen, but I was denied a rape kit by the staff there at the hospital after they pumped my stomach. I was handcuffed to my bed in the trauma room for almost 8 hours, and after telling 9 people thus far I had been raped nobody was willing to do anything for me.
Two new cops showed up to transport me and I told them my story also, they told me they didn’t care and was only there to transport me so I should be quiet and we will get along just fine. It was then I realized nobody wanted to help me because I was a 31 year old "gay" man by everyone’s perceptions and that this was happening to me because people were homophobic and really just didn’t care.
Even at the jail I told 3 more staff members, including the nurse and the psychologist yet nothing was done for me beyond a 800mg Motrin and a few puffs off my inhaler. I bled for two days while in jail and had to come to Ventura to get treatment, by then it was too late to collect evidence such as DNA to prove who had done this to me.
Now I’m facing the theft charges in the Hollywood Court system and this guy will return home to Australia on November 18th and nothing will ever happen to him for my rape or theft of my blackberry.
UPDATE
I WON MY CRIMINAL TRIAL!
This trial took two plus months of my life, here’s how it broke down time wise.... two week long mock trial to film the Australian’s side of the story, it was to be shown to the jury after he had left the country, two weeks’ worth of jury selection, six weeks’ worth of trial time, three and a half days of that I spent on the stand testifying, and then almost four days of jury deliberations.
The Jury of my peers came back as hopelessly deadlocked. All charges were dropped and dismissed in my favor, the judge was a really great guy and I think he, as well as the jury could see that the police had violated police procedure on many levels, violated my civil and constitutional rights in many ways, and were doing nothing but trying to bury me with this trial because from moment one I had been highly outspoken about how they were violating my rights and couldn’t do this to me.
Now days I’m focused on fighting for the rights of people who like myself were not only the victims of a horrible and demeaning crime, but also quite possibly victims a second time around by being denied basic medical care, justice, liberty, and most importantly the right to EQUALITY!
So join me in this epic battle against the City of Los Angeles, The LAPD, and the four officers involved. Look up my Cause page on Facebook, Equality4Everyone.org. Help spread the word about what happened to me, help me gain funding to fight these people in court at the Federal level.
The most important key issues that will be decided in my Federal Civil Rights Case that’s set for trial on 5/12/12 is as follows “Does plaintiff’s alleged claim of failure to obtain a rape kit amount to a constitutional violation”. THAT’S HUGE right there. It can and will affect many cases brought to the courts long after mine. So let’s take a stand and show that we DEMAND equality, we DEMAND equal protection from rape as an animal or person under the age of 18. We demand the right to treatment and forensic evidence collection; we DEMAND the right to JUSTICE!
Please assist me in this epic battle, I cannot fund this Federal Civil Rights Case on my own. Alone I am powerless but together WE can overcome anything. If we don’t work together this case will fade into nothing and we will all lose out on our opportunity to provide all victims over the age of consent the right to equal protection under the law in the event of rape or sexual assault
If a child or an animal can be protected from rape, then why can’t a man?
Kindest Regards,
James Michael Hornik
1(805) 861-7990
P.O. Box 23571
Ventura, California 93002
www.facebook.com/Equality4Everyone.org
www.facebook.com/James.M.Hornik
