Wallace Langham was indicted for hate crime and battery after he was accused, two months earlier, of assaulting a gay tabloid reporter, while using homophobic language. New York Post reported. Hayley Sumner was a Langham representative. She stated that at the time, the Star reporter approached Langham in a Hollywood supermarket, making offensive remarks about Langham’s tattoos. Langham saw the situation and intervened to defend his partner. The reporter then allegedly started to provoke Langham until there was a fight. However, she denied that Langham used gay slurs.
Sumner claims that the reporter started the fight knowing Langham was, in an effort to extort Langham. The Associated Press reported. “Mr. Langham intends to request that extortion charges be filed against the purported victim. It is despicable for an individual to provoke a fight and then characterize it as a hate crime in order to leverage the incident for his personal financial gain,”She said.
According to the New York Post the man, a 35-year-old male, was treated for bruising and a broken jaw. The Star reported that the reporter did not work for the company at time of the incident. They declined to comment.