Police seek assault charges after transgender boy beaten in Massachusetts

GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts (AP) — Police in Massachusetts are seeking to charge three teenagers in connection with an attack on a transgender boy in August. The Gloucester Police Department said Friday that it has filed applications for criminal complaints seeking assault and battery charges against two 16-year-old boys and a 17-year-old boy. The teens will next face a juvenile court hearing after which a clerk magistrate will determine whether there is probable cause to move forward. The victim said he was at an outdoor party when as many as a dozen teens attacked  him, called him homophobic slurs and chased him into the woods. Police assigned a specially trained hate crime investigator to the case and consulted with other experts, but say the evidence did not support hate crime charges.