Twelve of the 15 Salisbury University students accused of attacking and beating a man in Maryland because of his sexual orientation had their hate crime and first-degree assault charges dismissed, court records show. The students, ages 18 to 21, originally faced several charges including first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and associated hate crime charges, police said. The remaining charges accusing them of reckless endangerment and committing hate crimes were dropped following preliminary hearings last week. While both of them had their reckless endangerment charges dropped and their assault charge downgraded, they continue to face false imprisonment and hate crime charges, court records show. “At this time, the students facing charges in the alleged incident remain on interim suspension,” a spokesperson for Salisbury University told NBC News in a statement Sunday.

---

Persons: Riley Brister, Bennan Aird, Ryder Baker, Cruz Cespedes, Dylan Earp, Cameron Guy, Jacob Howard, Eric Sinclair, Patrick Gutierrez, Dylan Pietuszka, Sean Antone, Benjamin Brandenburg, Steve Rakow, ” Rakow, Zachary Leinemann, Elijah Johnson, Johnson, Logan Clark, ”, Salisbury, Detectives, “ Organizations: Salisbury University, Salisbury police, NBC News, Brister, NBC, Court, “ Salisbury University, Police Locations: Maryland, Salisbury, Wicomico County, Wicomico