Gainesville Georgia Man Granted Pretrial Diversion for Racially Motivated Attack in Gainesville Florida

Editor’s Notes: This article contains a copy of the police report, which contains graphic slurs uttered by Talan Bens against Black, Indian, and LGBTQ+ people. The words are visible but omitted with a “*” symbol.

On October 28, Talan Issac Bens, 20, was granted a pretrial diversion for his racially motivated felony case of battery by strangulation.

Bens, who is originally from Gainesville, Georgia, lives in Gainesville, Florida, court records show. Court documents in Bens’ case confirm the arrest occurred in the jurisdiction of the University of Florida (UF) Police Department (UFPD), and that he was a UF student at the time of the incident. GnvInfo hasn’t confirmed if Bens is still a UF student, but his Instagram account currently tags UF’s account in his bio. 

On January 18, UFPD Officer Dwaye Williams reported the following:

“The defendant Talan Bens did commit the offense of Battery by Strangulation (784.031) by impeding the normal breathing or circulation of the blood by applying pressure on the throat or neck of the other person. This action resulted in the victim being rendered unconscious, falling to the ground, further injuring his head. There was also a factor of racial motivation due to derogatory statements made from the defendant to the victim.

To wit; The witnesses (w1-w3) advised that their friend (V1) had just been assaulted between Garage four and the Honors Dorms. The victim and witnesses were walking back from the Wawa on West University Avenue with a large group of students. They advised that the defendant, an unknown white male (later identified as Talan Bens) wearing a dark blue ‘puffer style’ jacket and dark pants, and his friend, an unknown black male (later identified as R.J. Priest [or Priestley]) wearing a dark sweater and white pants, began harassing them and calling them racial slurs. They advised that the defendant was calling then, ‘Cu*ry Mun**ers’, "Ni**as", "Smelly", and other racial Indian and African/American slurs. 

The victim and witnesses left the larger group to go to garage four to get some belongings from their car while the suspect and his friend followed behind, still harassing them. As they approached the garage the defendant shoved the victim, and he shoved him back. They exchanged words with the victim and witnesses walking towards Beaty Towers where they were going to stay for the night. The defendant continued to engage with the victim challenging him to a fight and squaring off on him. The witnesses attempted to get the defendant to leave them alone by getting in between the defendant and the victim. The defendant then calls the victim a, ‘fa**ot’ and tries to shove him. The victim is then shoved by the defendant's friend (RJ) as the defendant grabs the victim by the throat and face and pulls him into the street. The witnesses try to stop the attack, but the defendant has the victim in a choke hold from behind. As the victim is going unconscious the witnesses try to get him to stop choking him. The defendant then drops the victim's unconscious body on the street causing a large bump on the top of his head. The victim was unconscious for a few seconds and the defendant ran away. One of the witnesses captured the incident on video. The victim regained consciousness and refused medical attention.”

Williams reported that the pictures and videos were attached to his report, but they aren’t viewable in the report on court records. 

Although they redacted the entire narrative portion of the document, a public records request to UFPD shows they charged Priestley with misdemeanor battery for his role in the incident. However, a search of Alachua County court records indicates a case was never opened against him. There are no search results upon looking his name up in the multiple ways it’s spelled in reports. Additionally, Bens’ and Priestley's reports regard the incident as occurring hours apart.

Bens was released from the Alachua County Jail soon after his arrest after posting a $50,000 bond. 

On October 28, Bens walked into the Alachua County Criminal Courthouse wearing a black suit and tie, accompanied by his private attorney, Ron Kozlowski. 

During Bens’ hearing, a state attorney said the victim didn’t have an issue with the resolution of the case. Judge David Kreider appeared to have questions about the agreement, and he called in the attorneys on both sides to have a private conversation, generally referred to as a sidebar in court. After a brief discussion, Kreider dismissed the lawyers and accepted the pretrial diversion agreement.