SANDY, Utah — A teen was in juvenile court Wednesday after committing a homophobic hate crime in Sandy two months prior.
The judge ordered the 17-year-old, who punched a gay teenager while he was hugging his boyfriend, to continue to be on probation and to volunteer wit the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities.
"It makes me sad that still today in 2022, kids are still going through this kind of thing," said the victim's mother Stefanie Peacock. "That anyone is going through anything like this, and especially that it happened to my son."
Her son, Christian, was standing on his driveway hugging his boyfriend when a teenager punched him in the face, yelling homophobic comments at the two on July 30.
They were a group who drove by twice, with the incident escalating when they came by the second time.
“It has always been a very safe neighborhood,” said Kyle Peacock, Christian’s dad. “Then to have something like this happen at your home, where you’re supposed to feel safe, it just, it really riled a lot of different emotions that you didn’t know you had inside of you.”
The assault charges were enhanced by hate crime charges. At Wednesday’s disposition, the judge reviewed recommendations from the state and probation office to determine the next steps in the case. He deemed the teen to be low risk to the community.
“I appreciate the good report from home detention, it’s an excellent report,” said the judge. “So I am going to follow the recommendation from probation and terminate you from home detention and electronic monitoring. You’re still going to be on probation.”
The judge also ordered the minor to serve additional community service hours volunteering with LGBTQ+ groups, taking an empathy class, writing an apology letter to Christian, and paying restitution for the material damages -- all to help educate and make him a more mindful and considerate person.
“The consequences of your actions - that’s what we deal with a lot in juvenile court is kids learning how to take responsibility for their actions and learning to think before they act,” added the judge.
Outside the courthouse, a sea of pride flags - community supporters gathered to show Christian and his family that they are not alone.
“We have people that we don’t even know coming from California, coming from just around the city, it’s just really nice to know that people are here for my brother,” said Jocelynn Peacock, Christian’s sister.
Christian’s parents say they hope a situation like this helps raise awareness, so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“Be kind to others and don’t punch somebody because you don’t agree with who they are, that’s just not okay.”
“I think it’s really important that we all keep standing up and saying this is not okay," said Stefanie Peacock. "That we are people and everyone should be loved and accepted.”
The judge ordered that on December 30, the probation office would file a written report with the judge about the teen’s progress and then they would continue to evaluate the remaining sentence.
The identities of the persons involved in the incident will not be disclosed due to them being minors.
