Man accused of US gay hate crime cleared of involvement but the rest of his family remains in jail

Back in May members of a US family were arrested and charge over an alleged vicious assault on a gay man that has reportedly left him blind.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, has said he was in a relationship with 21-year old Oleh Makarenko, who is known as Alex. The man says that when his partner’s parents found out about the relationship they became enraged and they later arrived at his home where he was assaulted.

Prosecutors in Florida say Oleh and his parents Inna Makarenko, 44, and Yevhen Makarenko, 43, arrived at the man’s home in Pompano Beach last August and accused him of turning their son gay. Prosecutors allege that the family members all assaulted the victim.

In June authorities dropped charges against Vladyslav Makarenko after it was established he was in another state at the time of the assault. He says his family had no involvement in the crime, and he’s confident the remaining members of his family in custody will eventually be released.

“They have no evidence and they’re still accusing us of all this information. Like, what we’re trying to show right now is that all of us are innocent people and what’s going on, we have to make it gone because it’s not the way it should be,” Vlad Makarenko told local news outlet NBC Miami.

“I believe, I hope, I pray every day so they can get out of there so we can handle the situation from here. We are sorry what happened to this guy but we have no, we’re not connected to him.”

While Vladyslav Makarenko has been released after spending several months in prison. His other accused family members are now being held in an immigration detention facility. The family moved to the United States from Ukraine around six years ago.

The case returns to court on 5th August and the families lawyer has told the media he is confident the case will be thrown out.

OIP Staff

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