Rhythm Turner, 25, singer and guitarist in local band, Rhythm and The Method believes she was the victim of a hate crime when Vincen Matthew Williams, 21, assaulted her, after she hugged her girlfriend, outside Canes Bar & Grill in Mission Beach on Thursday, May 14.

“I was assaulted because of my sexual orientation, because I choose to want to give my girlfriend a hug,” Turner said.

It was 10:30 p.m. and Turner had just finished performing with her band Dropjoy at the bar-restaurant. She was leaning against her car hugging her girlfriend, Lisa Viegas, when Williams and an unidentified man walked up and began to harass them, both women said.

“I was just giving her a hug goodbye and this guy walks up with his friend and he’s saying stuff like, ‘Oh my god was that two girls kissing? Are you guys, lesbians?’ Like up in our space, right beside the car,” Viegas said.

“They were saying, ‘We want to see you guys kiss. Did you really kiss?” Turner, who told them to leave, said.

“The two men wouldn’t budge, so Turner started cursing at them,” Viegas said.

Williams got upset and told Turner, “Don’t talk to me like that or I’m gonna slap you,” Turner said, adding that she then told Williams, “No, you’re not going to slap me. Get away from us.”

Williams then slapped Turner with an open palm, Viegas said.

“My glasses flew over my face and, in shock, I pushed him away from the car,” Turner said.

Williams then punched Turner in the face.

“He punched me in the face really hard. It left me dazed,” Turner said, who then tried to punch Williams but missed.

Williams then punched Turner in the face a second time, Viegas said.

“When he punched me again, it knocked me to the floor and my nose started bleeding,” Turner said.

At that point, Viegas recalls, she yelled for Turner’s brother Evan Turner, who was sitting with their mother in a car, a few vehicles away from the incident, for help, and Williams fled the scene.

Evan ran after and captured Williams, and a Canes security guard held the suspect until police arrived. Police were not able to apprehend Williams’ accomplice, who had already fled the scene.

Paramedics drove Turner to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with two facial fractures: one on the bridge of her nose and the other under her eye socket or orbital bone. Doctors told Turner that the orbital fracture must heal on its own, but that her nose needed surgery to be reset, she said.

The District Attorney’s office is helping Turner, who has no medical insurance, pay for the surgery.

Nine days after the incident, Turner and Viegas posted an online video, created by friends Daniel Lo Presti and her partner Alicia Champion, in which they recount the details of the assault.

“I wanted to speak out about this and share my story, so that other people will come out and share their stories,” Turner said.

“She said she wanted to be public about this. So, we thought, let’s film her telling her story and get it out there, to show people that this is what homophobia looks like. You know, she went to hug her girlfriend goodbye and this is what happens,” Lo Presti said.

Williams was booked on two assault charges: battery with serious injury and a hate crime, said San Diego Police Department Detective Garrick Nugent.

The District Attorney’s office investigated the charges, concluded that it could not prove the hate crime charge and dropped it, but it recently began reinvestigating the charge after receiving new information, said District Attorney spokesperson Steve Walker.

Turner said the “new information” was her online-video.

“It was actually the video that they saw that made them want to reconsider it, and they re-interviewed us both to get the hate crime put back in,” Turner said.

But the possibility of charging Williams with a hate crime ended last Thursday when he plead guilty to two felonies: assault with the means to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury.

“We legally can’t charge it now that he’s already plead,” Walker, who declined to say what evidence would have been necessary to file a hate crime charge at the time of the event, said.

Two years ago, at a Community Coalition Breakfast, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said a major problem in determining whether an incident is a hate crime is proving whether the assailant was motivated by hate or targeted the individual because of actual or perceived membership in a group.

Turner wonders if there is a double standard.

“Because we are lesbians, are we automatically victims of any male who wants to see us perform sexually in front of him, and is it OK for that male to then attack us when he doesn’t get what he wants?”

Williams’ sentencing hearing is set for July 14.

The online video can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5tGpnspl80.

Turner needs help paying for her medical bills and has set up a fund in her name. The video link above provides a side bar with information on how to contribute to the fund.