Following a three-day jury trial, Maurice Diggins, 36, of
Biddeford, Maine, was convicted today of conspiring to commit hate crimes and
of actually committing hate crimes by engaging in a series of racially
motivated attacks against black men in Maine, announced the Department of
Justice.
“Today’s conviction demonstrates that the Department of
Justice will not tolerate horrific racially-motivated attacks,” said Assistant
Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “The jury’s verdict
reflects the sad fact that racism and violence remain linked more than 150
years after our nation abolished slavery.
The Department of Justice will continue forcefully to prosecute
race-based violations of our federal civil rights laws.”
“Today, a jury found Maurice Diggins guilty of committing
three hate crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank of the District of
Maine. “At trial, the government proved that Diggins conspired with his nephew,
Dusty Leo, to brutally assault two men because they were black. In both cases,
the men’s jaws required surgery to repair extensive damage. Diggins’ and Leo’s
behavior was despicable. It violated America’s and Maine’s core values that all
men are created equal, that they are entitled to pursue their lives without
racial discrimination, and entitled to be safe from being assaulted because of
the color of their skin. I am grateful to the jurors for their service, to the
trial team for ably presenting the case, and to the federal defender for
providing Mr. Diggins with the type of vigorous defense that our system
provides to all defendants.”
According to evidence presented at trial, on April 15, 2018,
defendant Diggins and his nephew, Dusty Leo (who previously pled guilty in
connection with this case), committed two separate racially motivated assaults,
one in Portland and one in Biddeford. In the Portland assault, which occurred
just before 1:00 a.m., Diggins attacked a black Sudanese male without
provocation, breaking the victim’s jaw. During that same incident, Diggins and
Leo assaulted another black man who was standing nearby. Witnesses heard
Diggins and Leo using racial epithets during the incidents.
In the second incident, which occurred approximately an hour
later and approximately 20 miles away in Biddeford, defendant Diggins and Leo
drove in Leo’s truck into the parking lot of a convenience store, where Diggins
got out of the truck and approached a black man who was walking toward the
store’s entrance. Diggins directed a racial slur at the man and distracted him
while Leo got out of the truck and sucker-punched him in the jaw, knocking him
to the ground. The unprovoked attack broke the victim’s jaw in several places.
Leo pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, admitting that he conspired
to commit hate crimes and that he committed the hate crime against the victim
in Biddeford.
Diggins faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine
on each of the two hate crime charges, and five years in prison and a $250,000
fine on the conspiracy charge. Leo faces the same penalties for the hate crime
charge and conspiracy charge to which he pleaded guilty. They will be sentenced
after the preparation of presentence investigation reports by the U.S.
Probation Office.
The Biddeford Police Department and the FBI investigated the
case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila Sawyer and
Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Timothy Visser.
For more information about the Department of Justice’s work
to combat and prevent hate crimes, visit www.justice.gov/hatecrimes: a one-stop
portal with links to Department of Justice hate crimes resources for law
enforcement, media, researchers, victims, advocacy groups, and other
organizations and individuals.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment