Attorneys for three Evanston men charged with a hate crime for beating up a gay man on the CTA argued that the man was targeted for intervening in another fight — and not because of his sexual orientation. For at least a few minutes this afternoon, a Cook County judge agreed the case wasn’t an example of a hate crime — as Cook County prosecutors had contended. But an exasperated Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti repeated how Sean Little, Kevin McAndrew and Benjamin Eder taunted Daniel Hauff with the slur “faggot” and asked him whether they’d get AIDS due to his sexual orientation in the Jan. 10 incident. Judge Ramon Ocasio III then reversed his decision to drop hate crime charges.

Read the full story from the Chicago Sun Times.