A 71-year-old woman is facing hate crime charges after she allegedly beat and choked her neighbor with her cane, called him a “faggot” and said she thought he had AIDS and would give it to her son, officials said.
Wanda Derby and her son were “having issues” when he decided to move in with the family next door Wednesday night in the 3200 block of Ash Park in Richland Hills, Detective Tye Bell with Richland Hills police said.
When a 25-year-old neighbor came over to help her son move, Bell said she allegedly struck him several times and choked him.
“I guess she got enraged and she just started whooping him with a cane,” Bell said.
Bell said the man suffered bruises to his body and neck but was treated at the scene by Richland Hills police.
Derby allegedly struck the man’s mother when she came to help him and tried to call police. Bell said the man did not fight Derby because she is 71 and he did not want to harm her.
She was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon that could be enhanced as a hate crime because she called the man “faggot” several times when talking to police and told them that he had AIDS and would give it to her son, Bell said.
“Her statements were very biased toward sexual preference and that gave us the probable cause to file that as a hate crime,” Bell said.
Derby was taken to the North Richland Hills Jail and was released on a $11,500 bond Thursday afternoon.
The man she allegedly attacked, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he was staying with his mother next door for a few months while in town for business.
About a month ago, his mother called him and told him not to come home for safety reasons. He returned but rarely saw Derby.
Derby then began posting comments on Facebook that said he is gay and had AIDS that would eventually kill him. While he said he is gay, he doesn’t know how she found out. He also said he doesn’t have AIDS.
“I had nothing against her and from what I know she had nothing against me, but it started coming out online,” he said.
The man grew up next door to Derby and her son, who is in his mid-30s. He said Derby and her son were arguing a lot and the son was going to live with his mom, grandmother and uncle next door.
But when he tried to help with the move, he said she “just broke.” He didn’t fight back because he was raised to never hit women and he didn’t want to “disrespect his family.”
“Everything in me wanted to hit her but I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of giving her something out of it,” he said.
Police were called out to the apartment last week because Derby was allegedly yelling expletives at the man’s 83-year-old grandmother. Derby was issued a ticket.
Bell said police had made one other call to the apartment complex in the recent past, but he was not sure if Derby was involved in the reason for the call.
The man suffered minor injuries, but wants Derby to learn a lesson from the hate crime charge to stop harming other people verbally or physically if she has.
He said he is proud of being gay and that the attack did not change that.
“She’s not going to make me feel bad for who I am,” he said. “I’m not changing my lifestyle because someone feels I am a disgrace.”
I hope someone soon teaches Detective Bell that sexuality is not a preference. I prefer Dr Pepper to Pepsi. I do not prefer men to women.
Brian, agreed, although it’s such a huge step forward that police are recognizing a hate crime as it’s reported and not after an uproar from the community.
Hate laws should not exist. This woman commited a crime, period. Sorry, you don’t deserve special treatment.
Vance, hate laws exist because of people like you. I doubt you are able to comprehend the depth of what I just said, but it is, nonetheless, a fact.
“Aren’t hate crimes laws giving special rights and protection to only a small group?” Let me ask you something. Did the Voting Rights Act convey “special privileges” to certain groups? Of course not, and the answer is the same for hate crimes legislation.
https://www.the13thstory.com/krg/words/hatecrimes.html
The GOP Assault on the Voting Rights Act
https://www.thenation.com/blog/166933/gop-assault-voting-rights-act
The victim in this case needs to have a restraining order put out on this woman so that she can not move back into her apartment. Since they are, quite literally, next door neighbors, his life is STILL in danger from this bigoted white trash.
“Hate crimes” are ridiculous. Aren’t pretty much all violent crimes because of hate? This is to appease minorities. If you’re gay, thats great but like Vance said you dont deserve a special set of rules because of your sexual preference. Would it be a hate crime if this was a gay guy hitting a straight dude calling him a “f-ing hederosexual”….nope, sure wouldn’t be.
Joe-Vance-dumdums-hate crime laws exist because they ensure that hateful bigots like yourself are prosecuted ot the full extent ot fthe law-you see, in Texas and otehr southern states, criminals were getting away with murder-this way, ALL minorities-and religious beliefs-are protected from bigotry-this old lady deserves to fry for this-you dont get to attack people for their race,. their orienattion, their beliefs, etc-not special rights-this protects you rednecks too-this old lady needs ot be punished for this-good thing though is that she will be dead soon and others like her-america will not tolerate hate
and Joe, yes, it would be-all orientations are protected-but you see, gays dont do that…only redneck bigoted religious sheep like that old lady and yoruself attack others in hate…
@Joe: “hederosexual”…HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Why don’t you visit dictionary.com and look up the word “heterosexual”. Oh, I almost forgot. Hate crime laws were not enacted to appease minorities. They were enacted to provide equal protection under the law. I know you failed spelling, but did you also fail history? Just asking. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.
Hate crimes do not just protect gays. They protect everyone. Most people see then as laws that many gays and blacks stand behind. But in reality, if a black man beat a white man because he hated the man for being white that would be considered a hate crime. Or if someone was beat for being a Christian. To call Vance and Joe bigoted for their comments is closed minded as well. They might not realize that they two are protected under the law. A person is only bigoted if they refuse to see all points, after hearing all the facts.
If convicted under this law, this would make the old lady stay in jail for life.
The law was created because of Matthew Sheppard, who was ruthlessly killed and left on a fence to die. It was a sad tragedy that shocked a nation who thought we were above this hate. So an old lady swinging a cane, causing no permanat damaged doesn’t deserve the same punishment as Matthew Shepard’s killers. The law cannot be blanket-applied because epithets were used AND be fair (based on actions.) This should be “simple assault”.
Sorry, but hate crime laws do give some classes of people special rights, and I say that as a gay person.
If you antigay haters weren’t so freaking hateful we wouldn’t need hate crimes laws.
GTFOI,A.
Even if acquitted or otherwise not sent to jail, they can get a restraining order against her. That could possibly force her to move away and not be able to set foot in the house even to sell it! Also, if convicted of a crime (hate crime or not), she could be forbidden to have or use a computer, since she used it to harass.
Hate crimes laws exist because classes of victims are targeted. For instance, if a Muslim extremist targets Jews that’s a hate crime. In that case, I don’t think that there would be much opposition (nor should there be).
The U.S. (especially the south) has a history of lynching. Extra stringent laws largely put an end to this!