The Department of Justice today announced that a federal grand jury
sitting in Seattle has indicted Jamie Larson, 49, on a federal hate
crime charge relating to a racially-motivated assault of a 50-year-old
Sikh man.
Larson has been charged with one count of violating the Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was enacted in
October 2009. The indictment alleges that on Oct. 17, 2012, the subject
assaulted the victim, based upon the victim’s actual and perceived
race, color and national origin, which included
Middle Eastern and Arab descent. The defendant was arrested at the scene of the attack after a witness called 911.
The charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison.
The Shepard-Byrd law criminalizes acts of physical violence causing
bodily injury motivated by any person’s actual or perceived race, color,
national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity
or disability.
The matter is being investigated by the Seattle Division of the FBI.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce F. Miyake
of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington and
Trial Attorney Nicholas Durham of the U.S. Department of Justice’s
Civil Rights Division.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and the subject is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
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