Eight gay-hating Bronx gangbangers accused of one of the city's most savage crimes in years appeared in court Sunday to face charges in what Mayor Bloomberg called an act of "pure evil."
The eight were hit with a slew of charges including gang assault, sexual assault, robbery, weapons possession and hate crimes. The gang assault count alone is enough to put them away for 25 years.
None of the defendants - Mendez, 23; Elmer Confresi, 23; David Rivera, 21; Bryan Almonte, 17; Steven Caraballo, 17; Nelson Falu, 17; Denis Peitars, 17; and Brian Cepeda, 16, all of the Bronx - entered pleas.
They are due back in court Oct. 14. Only Peitars and Caraballo were offered the chance to post $50,000 cash bail.
A ninth suspect, Rudy Vargas-Perez, 22, remained at large.
Members of a penny-ante crew calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the defendants are accused of a depraved rampage that began at 3 a.m. on Oct. 3, after learning a 17-year-old wannabe recruit had been seen with a 30-year-old gay man.
In the abandoned three-story house at 1910 Osborne Place, they used as a clubhouse - and turned into a makeshift torture chamber - they allegedly stripped the boy naked, beat him, slashed him with a box cutter and sodomized him with a plunger handle.
That evening, a second 17-year-old was tied up in the house and interrogated about his relationship the 30-year-old man.
They then allegedly lured the older man to the house, stripped him, tied him to a chair and forced the 17-year-old to hit him in the face and burn his genitals with cigarettes as they jeered.
They then allegedly battered the older man with chains and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.
Some of the gangbangers also went to his 40-year-old brother's apartment and beat him, and forcing him to give them $1,000 dollars by putting him on the phone with his terrified captive brother.
They left him tied to his bed with his eyes, nose and mouth covered with tape, close to suffocation.
The other victims were allowed to go free but warned they would be killed if they revealed what happened to them.
The gangbangers allegedly cleaned their torture chamber with bleach, ripped up carpet and repainted the walls in an attempt to cover their tracks.
Tipsters told police what happened, and cops began arresting the crew Wednesday.
"The 30-year-old victim is terrified. He's in hiding. This gang still has leaders and soldiers out there," said one police source.
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