A gay man injured in an attack being investigated as a hate crime tells how it unfolded.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published November 25, 2003
[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
Bartow residents Greg Hall, 31, foreground, and Peter Malamoutsis, 22, were assaulted in Tarpon Springs early Saturday morning.
TARPON SPRINGS - It all happened so fast.
One minute Peter Malamoutsis was laughing with friends in front of a restaurant early Saturday morning. The next he was on the pavement gasping for breath as three men kicked him repeatedly in the head.
"I couldn't really see anything, because it was all just fists flying and punching and kicking," Malamoutsis, 22, said Monday. "Then I kind of blacked out."
Three days after charging two Tarpon Springs men with a hate crime in the beating of Malamoutsis and friends in the city's tourist district, police now are seeking a third suspect in the incident.
"Once we have identified him he will also be charged with a hate crime," said Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Jeff Young.
The trouble started Friday around 11 p.m. at Zorba's Restaurant and Lounge at 508 Athens St. Malamoutsis and his companion, R. Gregory Hall, 31, were sharing a few drinks and laughs with friends when Malamoutsis spotted John A. Himonetos at the bar.
Malamoutsis lives in Bartow with Hall but remembered Himonetos as a regular at a Japanese restaurant where Malamoutsis once worked. The two chatted amiably until Malamoutsis told Himonetos he now works as a bartender at the Castle, an Ybor club.
Himonetos then made a disparaging comment about the club being gay, Malamoutsis said.
"I was like, "Yeah, they used to have a gay night there, but so what? What's the matter? You got a problem with gay people, because I'm gay."
The talk ended there. A few hours later, the trouble began.
Malamoutsis, Hall, friend Andrew Skiadas, 45, and four others left the bar shortly after last call at around 2 a.m.
"We weren't even out the door 5 feet before this guy (Himonetos) starts running over to us," Malamoutsis recalled.
Himonetos, who is 5 feet 8 and weighs 230 pounds, punched Skiadas in the throat, police said. When Malamoutsis tried to intervene, he was jumped by a friend of Himonetos', Stamatios N. Kannis, 22, and a third unidentified man, police said.
After beating Malamoutsis to the ground, the assailants began punching Malamoutsis' brother, Theodore, 33, and then laid into friend Brittany Brewster, 20, police said. The melee sent five people - Malamoutsis, his brother, Skiadas and Hall - to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries and resulted in Kannis and Himonetos' arrests early Saturday morning.
A part-time model, Malamoutsis had looked forward to a fashion shoot in a couple of weeks. But the head injuries he sustained in the attack are so severe that he must now postpone the job and seek help from a plastic surgeon, he said.
"My face makes me look like Quasimodo now," he said.
On Monday afternoon, Kannis and Himonetos were released from the Pinellas County Jail after each posted $41,500 bail.
Kannis was recently hired to work as a boat hand for St. Nicholas Boat Lines at the Sponge Docks, said his employer, George Billiris.
Himonetos' mother, Mary Himonetos, said Monday that her son did not want to comment on the incident. Calls to Kannis' home were not returned Monday.
Police charged both men with three counts of misdemeanor battery and two counts of felony aggravated battery. Police designated all the charges as hate crimes, which, under Florida law, increases the severity of the offense. When classified as a hate crime, an aggravated battery charge that normally carries a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison can result in a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
It was not the first time the two men have run afoul of the law.
In May 2001, Kannis pleaded no contest to battery and other misdemeanor charges, was sentenced to one year of probation and was released from probation more than three months early, according to court records.
In April 2000, Himonetos got instant attention in Tarpon Springs after he was charged with discharging a destructive device on a city street. He was one of two people charged with detonating homemade explosives, often known as Greek bombs, around celebrations of Eastern Orthodox Easter. The case was dismissed after Himonetos went through a pretrial intervention program, according to court records.
But Saturday's incident was by far the most serious involving the two, police said. It is the first time this year that someone in Tarpon Springs has been charged with a hate crime, Young said. Last year, police reported three hate crimes in the city. All of those incidents were racially motivated, according to police records.
City officials say they worry the gay-bashing incident will put a black eye on Tarpon Springs' reputation.
"As an owner of three businesses myself in Tarpon Springs, I'm very concerned that people are going to be afraid to come to the city," said City Commissioner Peter Nehr. "We need to send a message that we as a city would not tolerate anything like an assault or a gay-bashing."
