Growing up in the 70's in the foster care system was hard enough for any child but it was especially difficult for a ten-year old child who was gay. By the time I was ten-years old I was beaten, tortured and even set on fire for being gay.
My only relief was going to visit my foster-grandparents in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Those visits had always help a special place in my heart, but that was all taken away from me recently after I moved back to the Midwest, after 22 years, from Las Vegas, Nevada.
January 15, 2015, I moved to Siren, Wisconsin to live with whom I thought were friends of mine from Las Vegas, they had moved back to Siren a few years earlier and had invited me to come and live with them. Shortly after doing so I realized I had made a horrible mistake. First it was being treated like a maid and a dog, then came the gay slang and insults.
But it didn't end there. On April 16, 2015, while trying to move out to get away from their abusiveness that was fueled by alcohol and abuse of prescription drugs, I was assaulted by James Youngblood, as he kicked me in the gut shouting at me calling me nothing less than a "Faggot" and chasing me out of the house threatening to kill me as he yelled even more gay insults at me all while carrying his two-year old infant daughter in his arms.
Fleeing his home in fear of my life I jumped into my car and drove to work where I had called the police. The officers came to take a report and I told them that I was assaulted by James Youngblood and that I still had property at his home. The officers would not give me an escort to their house to get my belongings, they instead told me that I had to file a police report, go to court and get a court order.
At that point in time I did not want to press any charges against Mr. Youngblood, more so out of fear of retaliation from James and his wife Kimberly and their friends in the Police Department. I just wanted to get my property and get away from them.
After the report was taken I went home to where I was living in a tent in a co-workers back yard and in my car. I was later informed that both James and Kimberly Youngblood were arrested and taken into custody. James for the assault and Kimberly for repeatedly threatening to find me and kill me as she stated that I deserved to die while using more gay insults as well.
While waiting for my day in court I had met with District Attorney Mr. Norine. Mr. Norine asked me what I wanted to have happen to the Youngblood's. I essentially told him that I wanted to press hate crime charges against them and even prepared a Victims Impact Letter stating how this incident had affected me. Mr. Norine not only refused to file hate crime charges against them he dropped the charges down to misdemeanor public disturbance. It was a great insult.
Mr. Norine stated that he did not want to ruin their lives over something as trivial as this because they had never been in trouble with the law before.
Truth of the matter is, I believe that Mr. Norine had dropped the charges because, as Kimberly Youngblood stated "…Mike Spafford and I use to play sex games when I was younger, so he knows we are good people, you cant arrest use we are from here and Shawn isn't". Mike Spafford was a police officer for Webster, Wisconsin and was no the Sheriff.
Mr. Norine had promised me that he would put them a dry (no alcohol or prescription pills). Probation period of 6-12 months, that if they violated it then he would bring the charges back. But he never did.
I was finally given my day in court or at least thought I was. As I sat there in the court room, with my friend, I was informed that there were not court reporters at the time and that they would have to either drop the charges or rescheduled the hearing until they could get a court reporter there. I agreed to drop the charges as long as the restraining order would be in effect indefinitely.
Shortly after the hearing, Mr. Youngblood would continually come to my place of work and harass me telling me that he did not care that I was now living in a storage unit homeless and now with out my car, because they had no services for crime victims in Siren or anywhere in Burnett County. All while purchasing more alcohol and making sure he would come to my register to do so.
Each time I would send an email to District Attorney Norine explaining what had transpired and each time it was ignored. Each time James would come into the store and laugh at me, mocking me it was like living the nightmare all over again. Not to mention that the District Attorney didn't care enough for my own safety to enforce his orders against the Youngblood's.
For months I did not know if the police were going to find me living in the storage unit and I would be left out in the cold and lose everything I had left in this world. There were nights I would walk the streets trying to find shelter. Finally, I was able to find a place in Eau Claire, with a kind person who answered my ad on Craig's List and helped me get back on my feet.
Even though I am no longer living in Siren, WI., I still cant help but wonder if I could have become another hate crime death statistic, how close I was to dying that day if James was able to do any more damage. Not only was James a much larger and much stronger individual; who has a load handgun in his home but he was aware that I suffer from a chronic heart condition and he with wonton disregard took advantage of it.
To this day I am still trying piece my life all back together again. I have never been one to play the victim, but in this circumstance I was very much a Hate Crime Victim not only by the physical assault and the threats to be shot and killed by the Youngblood's but by the very District Attorney Mr. Norine, who swore not only to uphold the law but to enforce it for all person, not just those whom he deems worthy of his time.