Gay man says tree dispute spurred choking attack, slurs by neighbor | Crime

BEAVERTON, Ore. - A gay Beaverton man says he and his partner are living in fear after he was attacked by his next door neighbor in a housing complex following a dispute about how a tree was trimmed.

 "This has always been sort of our hideaway... and that's been invaded, that’s been taken away from us,” David Christensen told KATU News.

Christensen is the Facilities Chairman for his neighborhood association and said he spends a lot of time sprucing up the grounds around the Beaverton complex where he and his partner live.

Following the pruning of a tree outside the back decks of his and his alleged attacker’s units – which are adjacent to each other – Christensen claims next-door neighbor Robert Bosket charged into his unit in a rage, hit him in the chest, knocked him down onto some stairs, put his hands around his throat and began to strangle him.

Christensen’s partner, who has not been identified, tried to get Bosket out of the house but Christensen claims he would not leave and hovered over him “in a very threatening manner” for 10 minutes or more.

“He was raving and ranting on and on,” Christensen recalled, saying an enraged Bosket complained the tree was ruined and he couldn’t watch the squirrels anymore.

All the while, Christensen said Bosket was using “every gay slur you can think of.”

No one answered the door when KATU News knocked at Bosket’s apartment. The entry doors to Bosket and Christensen’s homes are about 6 feet apart. Their back decks are also next to each other. A single wall separates their residences.

Christensen and his partner now say they are terrified to live where they do and said gay slurs and death threats against them have taken place often in the past.

The local Sheriff’s Office said Bosket admitted to them that he doesn’t like the fact his neighbors are gay but he is not charged with a hate crime because the dispute was over the tree, not the men’s sexual orientation.

Oregon law states that law enforcement have to show that the crime in question was motivated by the men’s sexual orientation.

However, a grand jury is reviewing the case and Bosket could face hate crime or intimidation charges.

KATU News will update this story as needed.