Makers of homeless video charged in California

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

Criminal charges were brought in California this week against four Las Vegas men involved in the making of a reality video with the homeless -- after three Nevada agencies closed investigations on the same video without results.

The charges include paying someone to commit a felony and offering a $25,000 bribe to the homeless to keep them from going to the authorities. The homeless men in the video were paid before being recorded and the felony alleged is assault with a force likely to cause great bodily injury, said San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Curtis Ross.

The video, called "Bumfights," has sold an estimated 300,000 copies over the Internet in less than a year. Taped in several California cities and Las Vegas, it shows homeless men engaged in stunts such as ramming their heads into steel doors and fighting.

Local and national homeless advocates and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., criticized the video in the months following its release, alleging the homeless being recorded were mentally ill, addicted or both, and were exploited.

Blumenauer, alerted by a constituent, contacted the Las Vegas office of the FBI and Metro Police, alleging that federal and state violations had been committed.

But the Las Vegas District Attorney's office said there were numerous problems in constructing a case.

"We looked into such statutes as disturbing the peace and reckless endangerment," Las Vegas Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron Bloxham said.

"But who was disturbed in the filming of the video, and where were our witnesses and our victims? Then there was the question of statute of limitations, since it is difficult to prove when the alleged acts were committed."

Disturbing the peace is a misdemeanor with a statute of limitation of one year. Reckless endangerment is a gross misdemeanor with a limitation of two years.

"Also, if you have two people knowingly get into a fight who are paid to do this it isn't illegal," he said.

In La Mesa, Calif., the police did have witnesses and victims, and were also assured by the district attorney of the legal framework on which to build a case.

Law enforcement was made aware of the video when a nurse at a nearby hospital called the police about the same homeless man appearing on more than one occasion with injuries sustained during the production of a video, La Mesa Police Department Lt. Raul Garcia said.

"We got the video and recognized the guy and another homeless person who had been in our city for years," Garcia said.

"We got people who had witnessed the filming of the video and testimony from the two homeless men. Eventually we identified four people involved in the filming of the video.

"I know that Las Vegas Metro Police said that this was done by consenting adults, but we looked at this from the minimum point of view that this is exploitation, and then we went to the DA and he said there was a real good case here."

The four charged were Ryan Edward McPherson, 19, Zachary Bubeck, 24, Daniel Jamon Tanner, 21, and Michael Joseph Slyman, 21.

McPherson was arrested two weeks ago and is out on bail. Bubeck turned himself in Monday and is out of custody. Both are awaiting a preliminary hearing on Oct. 10 at Superior Court in El Cajon, Calif. Tanner and Slyman are expected to turn themselves in today, Ross said.

The Las Vegas sales office of "Bumfights" offered no comment on the week's events. A call to the Las Vegas home of Slyman brought the same response.

The news of the criminal charges was greeted with enthusiasm by the nation's largest homeless advocacy group, the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless.

The group has been pursuing its own investigation on the video since this summer, said Lisa Davis, civil rights coordinator for the coalition.

"We've gathered some testimony from the homeless who appeared in the video and it seems to support civil charges rather than criminal charges. The homeless people I talked to said they were told the video was part of a school project and had no idea their faces would be seen all over the world," Davis said.

"But we are glad to see the case (in La Mesa) brought to a conclusion and see the whole issue as part of a larger problem -- which is the environment where hate crimes against the homeless are possible. This video perpetuates the hate that leads to the crimes."

Garcia, a 21-year police veteran, said he hoped the case would have a ripple effect beyond his town of 57,000, where the homeless men whose testimony he took know him on a first-name basis.

"At least it should send a message," he said. "You can't do this to these folks."