By Daniel_Shvartsman on Fri, Jan 11, 2008 1:24 pm
It was supposed to be a punk rock
party, but it turned into a human bonfire. On an April night in 2005, high
school senior Masha Badinter spent an evening at 51 Park Vale Ave. in Allston, a home known for its
parties amongst the Allston punk community. She came with a friend and a liter
of vodka and cranberry juice, and left with 2nd and 3rd
degree burns on her back, setting into motion a chain of events that has put
Allston punks under a microscope.
Eliezer
Falcon, the lead guitarist of the punk band Knox, is accused of pouring
accelerant on Badinter’s back and lighting her on fire. In addition, he
allegedly bullied a friend of Badinter’s, telling her to stop asking questions
about him and warning that if Badinter pressed charges, she was “heading for an
early grave.” Falcon and his band mate Carl Diener testified for the defense,
both asserting that Falcon was on the back porch when the flames went up, and
that two white men with shaven heads were the true culprits.
The trial
was more notable as an instance of generation gap on display. The key testimony
on victim intimidation came from Badinter’s friend, Kelly Martin, who had 3-4
conversations with Falcon on AIM and one in person where he allegedly
threatened her and Badinter. Falcon’s defense attorney Robert Doyle had a hard
time grasping that AIM is fairly well-guarded. “How do you know it was (Falcon)
typing that? Did you see him type it?” Doyle asked Martin, apparently unfamiliar
with the concept of a screen name. The jury also received a detailed
explanation of how Myspace works.
Traits of
the punk rock lifestyle also came into focus. Falcon was identified as the
alleged culprit in large part because he was the only person at the party with
a blond mohawk (and fairly dark skin, for that matter). Everybody at the party
dressed like punks – “tight pants, bullet belts, spiky jackets,” as Badinter
explained it (she had a trihawk at the time). Badinter found herself on the
defense briefly when Doyle pointed out that she tested positive for opiates
after the party, a possible sign of heroin (Badinter said the positive was due
to an unknown painkiller given after the burning). And she admitted that she
and her friend finished that liter over the course of the evening.
Of course,
while drinking, spiky jackets, and mohawks are all part of a good punk party,
burning somebody is completely out of the pale, whoever did it. “We can’t allow
the violent actions of a small number of people to define Boston
or its music scene, for this victim or for anyone else,” said Jake Wark, press
secretary for the Suffolk County
DA’s Office. As long as people can recognize
individual apeshit craziness, Allston punks’ rep should be ok.
