A man in California’s Gold Country has been formally charged with luring a young gay victim to his apartment and brutally beating him, nearly a month after the alleged attack took place.

44-year-old Christopher Mark Jacobs was charged on Monday with one felony assault “with force likely to commit great bodily injury” and two additional felony charges related to the alleged attack.

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Similar attacks posted to social media have surged over the last year.

Jacobs was arrested on January 31 and released on bond. Officials have not determined if the attack was a hate crime.

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Two unidentified juveniles were also arrested in connection with the assault.

Five days after Jacobs’ arrest and release, the victim’s lawyer appeared at a meeting of the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors to share details of the assault and urge officials to expedite prosecution of Jacobs and his accomplices.

Mary Smith, a member of the victim’s legal team, told supervisors the assault had all the hallmarks of a hate crime, MyMotherlode reported.

“The victim was contacted through an app by another adult man who he thought he could build a friendship with based upon the shared and sometimes lonely experience of being a gay man in a small town,” Smith said.

“Instead of meeting a potential new friend, he was lured to a location where he was brutally beaten for the sole reason that he is gay. Any statement to the contrary is an obvious and disgusting attempt to justify gay bashing, and I hope that no one hearing me today makes space in their head or heart for such ugly, hateful, inflammatory, and patently false information.”

Smith said the victim fully supports the sheriff’s office and district attorney in their investigation of the assault and encouraged board members to take an “unequivocal stand” that the community will not tolerate hate and bullying.

Public comment reflected Smith’s concerns, as several speakers encouraged members to take a formal stance to condemn the incident. One supervisor was called out by multiple speakers for his continued opposition to supporting the LGBTQ+ community with a resolution marking Pride Month.

In June 2024, Supervisor Anaiah Kirk told the board, “I really have — and so do a lot of members of the community — fundamental disagreements with the (LGBTQ) lifestyle, and some of those things.”

Kirk referenced “transgender influence” on young children and vowed to vote down any Pride resolution if it came before the board.

At the February meeting, Kirk asked county Sheriff David Vasquez for evidence that the attack was, in fact, a hate crime.

“It is an ongoing investigation. We are investigating it as a hate crime,” Vaquez said. “It is a very lengthy process. We are dealing with electronics, forensics, a lot of things go into it, and we have to be 100 percent sure.”

This week, Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke released a statement addressing concerns the prosecutor’s office has been delinquent in determining the attack was motivated by hate.

“Prosecutors are bound by an ethical obligation to file only those charges and enhancements that we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt at the time of filing,” Jenecke said.

“The Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office recognizes the community’s concerns about this case as it relates to the safety of our LGBTQIA+ community. However, the District Attorney’s Office is ethically obligated to protect the integrity of the investigation and prosecution by minimizing the release of information prior to final adjudication of the charges filed.

“Therefore, we cannot discuss the particular facts of this case except to share general information related to charging decisions, information revealed during non-confidential in-court hearings, information or documents in the publicly available court files, or until after the cases are completed.”

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