Vicious Hate Crime Against "Top Chef" Contestant

Former "Top Chef" contestant Josie Smith-Malave Thursday talked about how she, her friend, and her sister were victims of a vicious hate crime outside a Long Island bar by a group of people who savagely beat them while others watched, laughed and took photographs.

Smith-Malave said she and a group of six friends had gone to Partners following a barbecue on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. She and another woman, Emily Durwood, 30, had been dancing together inside the bar and had eventually been asked to leave.

"We were close — I'm sure we didn't look straight," openly gay Smith-Malave told The Advocate. "My hand was on her hip, my arm around her shoulder — we definitely looked like lesbians."

When they exited the establishment, they were met by a group of about 12 people, three of whom were women, who began to spit on them, punch them, and hurl epithets such as "fucking dyke" and "bush muncher."

"It was a very large group of young adults. I mean, they were so angry," said Josie Smith-Malave, 32, who appeared on Season Two of the Bravo hit show.

"I've never experienced something like that before, when you come face to face with people who are so angry."

Smith-Malave said bar employees and other patrons did nothing to help them. "I was punched and kicked all over my body," she said. "Everyone that was in the bar, bartenders, they all spilled out the door of the bar, and when I was able to look around, all of those people just watched this happen."

After about 15 minutes, the group scattered, possibly because an older couple who lived across the street had called the police.

Nassau County police officers took the victims' account at the scene but made no arrests and did not offer medical treatment. Smith-Malave said she was left with bruises and other injuries all over her body.

Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, spokesperson for the Nassau County Police Department, said the police is investigating the incident and treating it as a potential hate crime.

Update - Arrest made: "Matthew W. Walli, 20, of Oregon, was arrested and charged with second-degree robbery as a bias crime, according to police. Police said Walli and approximately 12 others were involved in a confrontation with four women, including Smith-Malave, who were just ejected from Partners, a bar located at Roslyn Avenue and Sea Cliff Avenue, police said. The altercation escalated when the group began spitting on them and physically hitting them after making derogatory statements about the four women's sexual orientation, police said. During the altercation, Walli forcibly stole a video camera from one of the four women causing her to fall and injure her knee," WNBC reports.