SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 3, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Leon “Dane” Hall, the man who said he was “curb-checked” during a 2011 hate crime assault, was arrested early Wednesday morning after a fight with an officer from the Salt Lake City Police Department.
The SLCPD officer was hospitalized after allegedly having a portion of his ear cut off in a fight with Hall.
According SLCPD Lt. Dave Cracroft, officers were called to Pauline Apartments at 120 S. 300 East just after midnight due to reports of a suspicious man pounding on doors.
Cracroft said officers made the decision to take the man into custody when things took a violent turn.
“The suspect pulled out a decorative flower made of iron, about 18-inches long, with an iron base and a porcelain top,” Cracroft said. “He ended up hitting one of my officers on the side of the head with it, severing his ear.”
Hall, 23, was initially taken to the hospital and then booked into jail. He was booked on assault on a police officer, interfering with an officer and criminal mischief.
The injured policeman ─ whose name was not released ─ was rushed to the hospital where surgeons planned to reattach his ear
As first reported by Q Salt Lake magazine in Aug. 2011, Hall said he was attacked outside Club Sound as his assailants yelled anti-gay slurs. He said his head was held to the ground and he was stomped on, breaking his jaw and loosening several teeth. No one was ever arrested in the assault, and Q Salt Lake reports many speculated the attack was drug-related rather than being a hate crime.
