Partridge News

In the middle of an April night last year, a young gay man named Kevin Pennington crawled out of the woods in the remote hills of southeastern Kentucky, looking for help.

A federal magistrate judge has ordered two eastern Kentucky men charged with a hate crime in an alleged attack on a gay man held until a June trial.

David Jenkins, 37, of Cumberland, and Anthony Ray Jenkins, 20, of Partridge, are charged with allegedly kidnapping and assaulting Kevin Pennington in April of last year.

Two Kentucky women have pleaded guilty to helping kidnap and assault a gay man in the first federal case to use a hate crime law that protects against attacks motivated by sexual orientation.