NYC: Two Years Probation For Gay Basher At Madison Square Garden

One of 8 men who attacked a gay couple leaving a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in May 2013 has plead guilty to the hate crime. He will receive two years probation.

Martin Martinez was arrested in October 2013, four months after he and a group of Knicks fans came across Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins walking arm-in-arm on Eighth Avenue, according to police. The group of fans hurled homophobic slurs at the then-couple and beat them, breaking Porto’s nose and Atkins’ wrist, authorities said.

Porto, 29, said he approved of the guilty plea. "I actually his respect his honesty," he told DNAinfo. "I think that speak volumes on whether or not he’s actually learned something."

Martinez, who was 25 at the time of the attack, pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment in the second degree, a hate crime with a promised sentence of two years probation, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

The misdemeanor involves physical contact based on “belief or perception regarding such person’s race, color…or sexual orientation,” according to the penal code. Martinez’s sentencing is set for March 30.

But Porto said that Martinez was only one of eight friends who ganged up on him and his boyfriend that day.

He plans to file a civil suit against all those he said participated.

"Their identities are known," Porto said, but could not specifically identify each individual in the video. "They got surveillance footage, they know where they sat, they know who bought those tickets, they know everything."