Dad ties noose around child’s neck after asking if he’s gay. He got arrested.

A 38-year-old dad is in police custody after tying a noose around the neck of his son’s teenage friend because he said he was gay.

According to the King County Prosecutor’s Office in Bremerton, Washington, Joseph Sweeney overheard a conversation his son and the friend were having and asked if the 14-year-old was gay. The boy replied, “Yes, is it a crime to be gay in this house?”

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He told the judge his son preferred playing with Barbie dolls and kitchen sets to robots, cars, and soccer balls, so he punched him in the face.

That’s when Sweeney put a noose around his neck and tightened it, according to sheriff’s deputies with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

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After the friend managed to get out of Sweeney’s grip, the dad chased his 13-year-old son around their trailer home and lassoed him around his chest.

Both boys ran from the property, deputies said.

The 14-year-old went home and told his mother about the incident; she reported it to the sheriff’s office. 

Sweeney was arrested at home and charged with a hate crime and two counts of second-degree assault. He remains in custody with bail set at $50,000.

He’s denied the allegations.

Sweeney recorded both boys with his cell phone while telling them to kiss each other in an effort to humiliate them, as well, detectives said in court documents. He later made jokes about the 14-year-old boy being a princess.

A search of Sweeney’s trailer turned up an unregistered firearm, which Sweeney admitted to owning, despite being prohibited from gun possession due to a prior domestic violence protection order issued in Kansas City last year.

The boy’s stepfather, who lives in the home where the incident took place, said it was blown out of proportion.

“I do see why everybody is going to be so concerned about this situation, but to be honest, all of what is being claimed right now is incredibly false and these types of things would not happen in my house,” Thorne Toliver told KIRO News.

“Yes, a rope was involved with their play, but it didn’t get out of hand,” he said. “As goes for tightening, there was never tightening.”

“That’s not something that would happen, and certainly in my house. There’s not going to be any form of extreme violence or hate towards each other,” he added.

His stepson seemed to downplay the incident as well, saying of his biological dad, “I told him to be careful and he got it around his neck, making sure it wasn’t tight at all, not to hurt him. Later he got it around my stomach. I accidentally got it tight because I was scrambling around.”

“He didn’t assault us,” the 13-year-old said. “Apparently, a hate crime happened, but it didn’t.”

Asked if his father put a noose around his friend’s neck and tightened it, the son said, “Yes, but he made sure to keep it loose, and I made sure of it, too.”

His dad is scheduled to appear in court next on November 13.

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