Still, Kraft said, according to the police report, the mother claimed "a pedophile kidnapped my children." Furthermore, during the course of the beatings, several comments about Bell and Fair's sexual orientation were made, Kraft said.

"Witnesses said they clearly heard anti-gay remarks," he said.

Because Bell is gay, Kraft believes the children's family treated the situation differently than they would have normally.

"If David had been in there with his wife, this would never have happened," he said. "It was a misperception that escalated into a hate crime."

Latu, however, disagrees.

"I would still beat the hell out of a man and wife," she told the Deseret News.

The issue for Latu was not that Bell and Fair are gay but that her children were in their house without her permission.

"Normal people do not take children out of homes," Latu said. "This is not a hate crime."

She admitted she "kind of feels bad" about the beating Fair took.

"He kind of got caught in the crossfire," Latu said. "We regret beating them up as badly as we did. I feel bad he got the worst of it."

But Latu is also concerned that more red flags didn't go off for Fair once he saw someone else's children in his house. Furthermore, she doesn't understand why Bell didn't try to return the children to their own home immediately if he found them wandering.

Since the attacks, Latu said, she and her family have felt public perception has turned against them.

"We're not the bad guys," she said. "That was our way of protecting the kids. We just want justice for what really happened." Latu called the incident a "nightmare" and said her children still have trouble sleeping at night. The family wants to sell their house and move, even though Fair has already moved out and the house where the beatings and alleged kidnapping occurred is vacant.

Neither Bell's family nor the Latu family has been particularly pleased with the media coverage surrounding the situation, each claiming the stories being told by reporters are one-sided and slanted in favor of the other party.

No felony charges

On Aug. 6, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office announced it would not file felony charges against the family for the beatings of Bell and Fair. The case was forwarded to the South Salt Lake City Attorney's Office to be screened for possible misdemeanor charges. So far, no charges have been filed.