Joseph Baken arrested for filing false hate crime

A 22-year-old Montana man pleaded guilty to filing a false police report claiming three men beat him because he is gay.

Joseph Baken had filed a report with Missoula police claiming that the men beat him after he went into the Missoula Club and announced it was his birthday and asked if anyone knew where a gay bar was.

He said after he made the announcement a man invited him outside for a cigarette and then two others joined in to beat him.

Shortly after Baken filed the police report his story went viral, with hundreds of thousands of “Likes” on Facebook pages and links on Tumblr.  Someone who videotaped Baken falling on his face contacted the police and gave them the video

In court on Wednesday Baken admitted to filing the false police report after a video surfaced of him attempting to do a back flip and failing.

Baken did not say why he made up the story.