In Interview, Suspect Denies Assault Was Motivated by Hate

In his first public interview since his arrest, the man accused by police of committing a hate crime against a Harvard senior angrily denied that the assault was a hate crime or that he was a skinhead.

"The guy just got in the middle of the wrong fight," says Benjamin Bargeil. "It ain't a hate crime."

Detectives from the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) arrested Bargeil, 25, a self-described "drifter," early Monday morning in connection with an assault on Sept. 19 that police said they believe was a hate crime.

Both the victim and police have said they believe the victim was targeted because of his skin color and the fact that he was wearing an Islamic prayer cap.

Bargeil says, however, he is very active in non-racist organizations, mainly the group Anti-Racist Action (ARA).

"When the cops arrested me, all I had on me were flyers for ARA," he says.

When asked if he considers himself a skinhead, he denied the label.

The account he gives of the Sept. 19 incident differs from the victim's report. The student told police he was on his way home from the Islamic prayer room in Canaday Hall when two men attacked him from behind, punching and kicking him.

The victim received stitches to close a wound sustained when he hit his head on the ground during the incident.

The victim declined to comment for this story.

Bargeil says he and a friend were on their way to the store, asking people for money along the way, when a person wearing Harvard athletic clothing tried to provoke them.

When they asked this student for money, the man responded, "Get a job, you slobs."

Bargeil and his friend confronted the man when the victim of the assault wandered into the middle of it.

Bargeil says he hit the victim by accident, at which point the victim fell to the ground and grabbed onto Bargeil's leg.

"I tried to leave him alone," Bargeil says.

"He kept saying 'take my money,' He wouldn't let go of my leg," Bargeil says. "I never called him any names."

The victim is deaf and so could not hear anything Bargeil said during the encounter.

Together, they fell down a couple of stairs outside St. Paul's Church, he says.

"If he'd just let go of my leg, I'd have walked away," he says.

Bargeil says he is angriest about how police are charging him with kicking the victim.

"How could've I kicked him if he was holding onto my leg?" he said.

The victim declined comment yesterday on the incident.

Zayed M. Yasin '02, president of the Harvard Islamic Society, also declined to discuss the specifics of the incident, citing privacy concerns.

Drifting

Growing up, Bargeil moved from group home to group home, never living anywhere or attending school in the same place for very long.

"I just sort of grew up everywhere," he says.

He dropped out of high school his sophomore year and began travelling.

He admits to a long list of misdemeanor arrests, although he says he has never committed a violent crime. He chalks the arrests up to the price of being homeless.

"It's all from surviving on the streets," Bargeil says.

On Jan. 23 of this year, he was released from a three-year prison term in Montana--where he had torn up a hotel room and stolen from a casino in Jordan, Montana.

He pled guilty to those charges--as he says he does with every crime he actually commits.

"If I did do it, I'll plead [guilty], but if I didn't do it, I won't plead guilty," he says.

He earned his high-school equivalency diploma while in prison, he says.

After his release, he headed into the mountains with friends where they spent a month camping. Then he did the same thing for another month outside Boulder, Colo.

Over the summer, he visited family in Chicago to tell them he planned on coming to Boston to settle down.

"They won't be happy to find out that I'm settling down in prison," he sighs.

A New Start?

Bargeil's been in Cambridge for about a month, living at a makeshift campsite down by the Charles River. According to the Massachusetts State Police, about 10 people live at the campsite.

Bargeil says he loves Harvard Square for its laid-back atmosphere, but is sometimes frustrated by dealing with Harvard students.

In the month he has been here, he has gotten into shouting matches with numerous students, and a couple have even taken swings at him, he says. When that happens, he says, his fellow friends in the pit are left with few options.

"What are we supposed to do?" he asks. "We could call the police, but they show up, look at us and tell us that we started it."

"It's a no-way street for us. For a Harvard student, they have every avenue," he says.

On the other hand, he has made friends with some students--one of whom even put out a flyer in Bargeil's defense after the assault.

Entitled "What If?," the flyer attempts to tell Bargeil's side of the story, and was handed out in the Square last week.

Bargeil also says he has more of a reason to settle down and end his drifting days now. He recently met a woman who works in the Square.

Wearing a gray jumpsuit, white socks and black sandals--all prison-issued--and sporting a beard and full head of chestnut hair, Bargeil speaks lovingly of his relationship with his black girlfriend, June, who he has been dating for about two weeks.

"It's different than anything I've ever had before," he says. "It's not a one-night stand, it's something I want for a long time."

Once released from prison, Bargeil hopes he will be able to study computer graphics and design and American history.

"I want to settle down here," he says hopefully. "I want to live life a little. I want a place to call my own."

For now, his only possession--the business card from his lawyer--fits in the front shirt pocket of his jumpsuit.

He is being held without bail at the Middlesex County Jail in Cambridge, spending his days in a large room with 50 other inmates and two televisions.

If convicted, he faces up to 22 1/2 years in a state prison and a fine of up to $11,000.

"What started out so simple, ended up a big ruckus," he sighs.