Sorry we missed this story the first time around -- the cops are still looking for the assailants in a stabbing on 19th and Castro back in June. Two gay men were walking down 19th Street when three young Hispanic men got out of a car following them. One of the young men asked them for a cigarette, and then stabbed both men repeatedly. The men managed to make it to 18th Street before one of them collapsed and the other one managed to get help. The less-injured victim, an art director for the Chron, was back at work within three weeks, but the other victim was in an induced coma for almost a month to recover from the stab wounds in his kidney. The police arrested someone in the case last week, but released him for lack of evidence. It's unclear whether the men were targeted for their sexual orientation or whether the assailants were in a gang.

And the Examiner's got coverage of a rape trial involving Justin Desmangles, who hangs with the city's literary crowd. Desmangles organized readings at sites like City Lights, and interviewed J.T. Leroy/Laura Albert on his radio show. Desmangles claims he had consensual sex with the accuser and that he'd only playfully choked her with a cord during sex, at her request. Non-mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez has testified as a character witness in favor of Desmangles, as has city poet laureate Jack Hirschman and state poet laureate (we have a state poet laureate?) Albert Young.