Those who contributed to the GoFundMe account to help defray the medical expenses of an Honduran immigrant who claimed he was hurt in a racially motivated attack in Longmont in August have until Sunday to request a refund.
The immigrant, Jorge Rodriguez, told police he was pulled from his vehicle and assaulted by a man who used hate speech in the Aug. 9 incident that started after Rodriguez was followed from a Hover Crossing liquor store, according to the GoFundMe account created by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office last month announced it was not filing charges against either of the men involved in the altercation “due to a credible self-defense claim.”
"In the days following the incident, there was a public perception of what transpired, including that the complaining witness (Rodriguez) had been followed by the suspect, pulled from his car ... and blinded in one eye due to an assault motivated by hate/bias. The perception of those facts has been determined, to a significant degree, to be inaccurate," the DA’s office stated in a Sept. 17 news release.
Rodriguez and his alleged attacker both squared off and were injured in the incident, according to the DA’s office.
The attack as originally described sparked community outrage and GoFundMe contributors raised $23,749 for Rodriguez.
State Rep. Jonathan Singer, who contributed to the fund, said organizers of the fundraising effort meant well but jumped in to help before all the facts of the attack were known.
“I think they had good intentions and in the middle of a crisis they just didn’t have all of the information they needed,” Singer said.
Beginning on Monday, CIRC stated it will work with GoFundMe to reimburse everyone that has requested a refund, according to a statement on the GoFundMe page.
“The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition assisted in the creation of Jorge’s GoFundMe page, and we were dismayed to discover that certain details of the original story were incorrectly relayed on the page,” the organization said in a statement. “In light of these new details, Jorge is pledging to provide a refund for any donor who requests it.”
Donors can contact CIRC’s Joshua Stallings through the GoFundMe page by 11:59 p.m. Sunday to request a refund, according to the statement.
The narrative from the GoFundMe page said Rodriguez was pulled from his vehicle after being followed from a Hover Crossing liquor store toward Tulip and 18th streets, near Garden Acres Park. The GoFundMe page also said the man who followed Rodriguez shouted “get out of our country.”
Longmont police investigated and turned their findings over to the DA’s office for review. The DA’s office reviewed security videos, photographs and eyewitness accounts, according to the Sept. 17 news release.
The DA’s office determined Rodriguez had purchased alcohol from a drive-thru window of the liquor store and stopped in the middle of the roadway, blocking the way. A red pickup truck stopped behind him and then made a U-turn out of the parking lot, and Rodriguez followed the truck out of the lot, according to the release.
The occupants of the red pickup pulled over in the Garden Acres Park area and “both men … voluntarily exited their vehicles. Both men admitted to investigators that they did so, and independent eyewitnesses confirmed this fact,” the DA’s office stated.
After a brief altercation, witnesses observed Rodriguez pursuing the other man, which led to another verbal and physical altercation. Rodriguez left the scene to go to a friend’s house. While he waited for her to arrive, he drank four to five beers but did not initially report the incident, according to the DA’s office.
Police were notified of the altercation four hours later.
Rodriguez later went to a local emergency room and was treated and released with a diagnosis of a nasal bone fracture and soft tissue contusion, according to the DA’s office. Rodriguez later disclosed he suffered a debilitating eye injury as a child.
The other man involved suffered an injury to his mouth, as did his girlfriend, who tried to break up the fight, according to the DA’s office.
