Accused of hate crime against gay man, Pompano Beach family claims "accusations false"
POMPANO BEACH - The final two family members accused of a vicious hate crime against a gay man have bonded out of jail.
"Feeling good to be home," said Oleh or "Alex" Makarenko. "Very grateful to God and the people who supported us-- the people who believe the truth, which there are not many."
He and his father Yevhen spoke exclusively with CBS 4, saying they did not commit these crimes.
"My whole family is innocent," Alex said. "We went through hell these last five months, and we are going to fight it. We are going to get justice."
They were charged with the attempted murder of a 31-year-old man, whose name is withheld due to Marsy's Law. Police reports say he was beaten so badly, he was left blind.
According to those reports, the victim told investigators it happened on August 6, 2021 at his Pompano Beach apartment.
At first, he told police he had been drinking and fell down. Then, six months later in February, he reported that he had been attacked. He alleged he was in a secret relationship with Alex, and his family got angry when they found out.
"I was the only person out of my entire family, with all of us being accused of the same crime, I was the only one who knew this person," Alex explained.
He would not go into further detail about how they knew each other, or for how long, citing advisement from his attorney
"It's frustrating that the whole family can be put behind bars for some false accusations, without any concrete evidence, and spend months in jail," Alex said.
He translated for Yevhen, who told us: "We don't even know if we'll be able to recover from this, and all of that is because of false accusations.'
Alex's mother Inna Makarenko was released on bond this past weekend, and his brother Vladyslav had charges dropped when investigators determined he was not in town at the time.
Alex, Inna, and Yevhen remain on house arrest, and they are scheduled to be in court Friday morning.
