A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who claimed he was attacked by a man who burned his wrist and called him an anti-gay slur has been charged with filing a false report.

Quinn Richardson Matney, 19, of Asheville,  was charged by citation Friday and is scheduled to appear in court May 16 in Hillsborough, according to a campus police report.

Matney reported he had been attacked outside Craige Residence Hall about 3:30 a.m. April 4 by a man who pressed a piece of hot metal into his wrist.

He reported the alleged incident to campus police the next day, but it was not publicized to the campus community until Chancellor Holden Thorp announced April 11 that the university was investigating it as a possible hate crime.

UNC-CH determined the report was false the next day, but the alleged incident and university's response concerned the campus gay students groups and others, which held a meeting last Thursday.

Matney later admitted the wound was self-inflicted, his father told the Daily Tar Heel.

It wasn't a hate crime. In fact, it wasn't a crime after all.

That's the takeaway from the false police report filed by UNC-Chapel Hill freshman Quinn Matney, whose claim that he was assaulted apparently due to his sexual orientation sent the campus into a brief frenzy.

But here's a question I haven't yet answered: why even use the "hate crime" classification? To what end?

Here's the deal: North Carolina has no specific law dealing with hate crimes. That means had Matney's claim been true and police had made an arrest, that person could not be charged with a hate crime under state law.

But universities that receive federal Title IV student financial assistance money must conform to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, one requirement of which being an annual report of crimes identified in the Clery act, which requires universities to report crime statistics.

A hate crime on the UNC-CH campus would have met the Clery crime definition of a hate crime and as such would have been included in the university's annual report, said Jeff McCracken, the campus police chief.

Reporting it as such doesn't automatically trigger any action, McCracken said, but would allow local police to request FBI assistance in investigating the situation, and federal charges could be filed.

Of course, it's all moot now.

McCracken said Thursday his agency will likely charge Matney with filing a false report. It isn't clear when Matney will be charged, though. For now, the student has returned home to Asheville to be with his family.
 

It's been quite a week for the gay community at UNC-Chapel Hill.

First, word trickled out that a gay student had been viciously attacked because of his sexual orientation.

Then, last night, the stunning news: Freshman Quinn Matney invented his story about being attacked in the middle of the night by a man who pressed a scalding piece of metal to his wrist.

Now, more questions than answers, said Jeff DeLuca, co-president of the university's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance, a student organization.

"It was certainly shocking, almost as shocking as hearing a hate crime could have happened on this campus," DeLuca said Wednesday, a day after hearing that the student he'd sought out and supported had made up the story. "People put a pretty emotional investment in this, trying to find out what happened. Though this didn't turn out to be be what we thought it was, the roller coaster ride was real. People are shocked and confused."

But DeLuca's student group is moving forward with a previously scheduled campus forum Thursday night - at 6:30 in Gardner Hall - where the issue will be discussed.

And DeLuca still wants to reach out to Matney.

"We have to keep supporting Quinn," DeLuca said. "Even if it's a different type of support we have to give him."

A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report, the university says.

In a message just released to the campus community, Chancellor Holden Thorp says: "The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime."

"It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur," Thorp continued. "When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.

Freshman Quinn Matney told police he was outside his South Campus dorm April 4 when he stopped to speak with an acquaintance. As he stood on a foot bridge near his Craige Residence Hall, he had said another college-age man nearby approached him, called him an anti-gay slur, and pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist.

The university planned to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government. The assault was apparently motivated by Matney’s sexual orientation, Thorp said in a statement Monday. “As a university community, we condemn this act of violence,” Thorp wrote. “Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker.”

But police had little to work with. Matney could not identify his attacker or the person he stopped to speak with just before the attack, said Jeff McCracken, UNC’s police chief.

Efforts to reach Matney today were unsuccessful.

Authorities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigating an assault on campus last week as a hate crime.

"As a university community, we condemn this act of violence," said UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp in a statement on Alert Carolina, the campus website that disseminates safety-related information to students, faculty and staff. "Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker."

The attack, which was reported to police April 5, occurred on the foot bridge between Craige Residence Hall and the intersection of Ridge Road and Manning Drive. Police said the student was treated for burns at the student health center. The student, freshman Quinn Matney, told police a person he recognized but did not know pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist, scalding it and doing tendon damage.

The burn left an imprint that looks something like a figure 8.

Police have no suspects yet, Chief Jeff McCracken said Tuesday. Matney said he stopped to speak to another acquaintance just prior to the attack, but didn't know that person by name, either, McCracken said.

Thorp said in the statement that the aggravated assault "appears to have been motivated by the sexual orientation of a male student."

Thorp said the university intends to report the assault as a hate crime to the federal government.

"Everyone in our community has the right to a safe, inclusive and welcome living and learning environment," Thorp said. "And all of us have a responsibility to stand against acts of violence, harassment, bullying and intimidation and to treat each other with civility and respect."

Outside of a bare bones incident report on hand at the police station, the attack was not made public by the university until Monday, a week later. That lag time has bothered some members of the gay community at UNC-CH.

"It's troubling when the only way we find out about a hate crime on campus is by word of mouth," said Jeff DeLuca, a sophomore and co-president of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance.