Family accused of beating gay man until he was blind just had charges dropped

Charges have been dropped against a family in Florida that was accused of beating a gay man so badly that he went blind. Prosecutors say that they do not have enough evidence to move forward with the case.

Inna Makarenko, Yevhen Makarenko, Pavel Makarenko, Vladyslav Makarenko, and Oleh Makarenko were accused of attacking the victim – who was dating a member of the family – in August 2021. He was dating Oleh Makarenko, and the family found out about their relationship in June 2021, according to the victim, whose name was not made public.

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The entire hateful incident was caught on camera.

“His father was treating him poorly and not accepting him, and his mother was forcing him to marry a woman,” the victim told police.

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The victim said that a few weeks later, Oleh asked for his address, even though Oleh would often stay at his place and even had a key to it.

At 1 a.m., he said he went to open the gate to his home in Pompano Beach, and he saw Oleh and the Makarenko family, who he had seen in pictures. Yevhen and Vladyslav Makarenko started to beat the victim while Oleh and Inna Makarenko watched.

The victim told Inna Makarenko, “Unfortunately your son is gay,” and then one of the family members grabbed an unknown object and hit the victim’s face.

“After falling to the floor, he pretended to be dead so they would believe he was dead and stop beating him,” the police report says.

Police found him unconscious with blood surrounding him on the floor during a visit to the apartment complex for other reasons, 14 hours after the attack. Police noted that his door was still open and that his property had been damaged as well.

It took the victim six months to remember what happened, and police then arrested the family. But the victim lost his eyesight and he is not expected to get it back.

But prosecutors did not believe that they could prove that that is what happened beyond a reasonable doubt.

First, in June 2022, they dropped the charges against Vladyslav Makarenko because he had an alibi on the night of the attack.

But now they admit that there isn’t enough evidence to get a conviction or even to prove that the family went to the victim’s home.

“The primary issue that has arisen in this case is the lack of evidence and identification of the alleged attackers,” states a closeout memo explaining why they dropped the case. “Officers who first responded to the scene were suspicious that the victim was not being truthful in what happened to him.”

“Though it was apparent that a crime was committed, there is no likelihood of conviction that these defendants committed such crimes,” they wrote.

The Makarenkos’ attorney has insisted that the family “had nothing whatsoever to do with the apparently awful injuries the gentleman sustained.” The family has maintained their innocence since they were originally accused.

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