WASHINGTON – A federal jury in Scranton, Pa., has convicted Brandon
Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak, both of Shenandoah, Pa., of a hate crime
arising out of the fatal beating of Luis Ramirez. The jury found the
defendants guilty of violating the criminal component of the federal
Fair Housing Act, which makes it a crime to use a person’s race,
national origin or ethnicity as a basis to interfere, with violence or
threats of violence, with a person’s right to live where he chooses to
live. In addition, the jury found that Donchak conspired to, and did in
fact, obstruct justice.
During the trial, the jury heard evidence from multiple eyewitnesses
that the defendants, aided and abetted each other and some of their
friends in fatally beating Luis Ramirez because he was Latino and
because they did not want Latinos living in Shenandoah.
According to the evidence presented at trial, on July 12, 2008, the
defendants came upon Ramirez in a park after leaving a community
festival. The defendants and several of their friends, some of whom
testified during the trial, attacked Ramirez. During the course of the
beating, the defendants and their friends yelled racial epithets in
which they repeatedly called Ramirez a racial derogatory term and told
him “This is Shenandoah. This is America. Go back to Mexico.” According
to testimony, Donchak beat Ramirez while holding a thick piece of metal
identified at trial as a “fist pack.” Piekarsky kicked Ramirez in the
head as he lay prone on the ground. After Piekarsky kicked Ramirez, he
told a bystander who was married to a Latino man to “tell your Mexican
friends to get out of Shenandoah or you will be lying next to him.”
After the fight concluded, Ramirez was taken to Geisinger Regional
Medical Center, where he died of massive head injuries. The jury also
heard evidence that, immediately following the beating, Donchak
conspired with some of his friends, some of their parents, and members
of the Shenandoah Police Department to obstruct the investigation of
the fatal assault.
“Hate crimes of this nature have no place in this country, and today’s
verdict demonstrates that violence committed because of a victim’s
race, national origin, or ethnicity will not be tolerated,” said Thomas
E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of
the Department of Justice. “As this case illustrates, the Civil Rights
Division will vigorously enforce the right of every person who lives in
this country to do so free of racially-based violence and intimidation.”
Because the jury found that death resulted from their acts, Donchak and
Piekarsky face sentences of up to life in prison on the hate crime
charge. In addition, Donchak faces up to 20 years in prison on the
obstruction charge and five years on the conspiracy charge. The
defendants will be sentenced on Jan. 24, 2011, by Senior District Judge
A. Richard Caputo.
This case was investigated by special agents from the FBI’s
Philadelphia Division, and was prosecuted by Gerard V. Hogan and Myesha
Braden of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.
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I am white and take offence that white people are racist that’s a racist comment please do not lable a whole race over something that two people did I have a racial marriage and I am not racist. Thank you!
Maybe now Shenandoah as a whole will learn that the culture of hatred they raise their children in has a very high price, and just isn’t worth it.
These men killed another human being and they deserve what is coming to them. The fact that it was tied to racial prejudice just taints the situation more. Anyone who takes another person’s life belongs in prison.
White people always being hateful and racist.
The media has repeatedly distorted facts pertaining to both the incident and trials. Fact 1: Ramirez was not an innocent victim just walking down the street and attacked because he was Mexican. He was a 25 year old statutory rapist who was supposedly “engaged” to two sisters, one 15 YEARS OLD, whom he had molested since at least 14 years of age.
Fact 2: On the night of the incident, one of the defendant youths made a harmless remark to his underage “girlfriend” that it was past her bedtime. It was Ramirez who first started yelling at the defendants and took his shirt off to FIGHT THEM.
Fact 3: He was not attacked, knocked out, and fatally injured. He had time to call FOUR of his friends and ask them to bring guns to the scene. Fact 4: Although a minor altercation ensued, it ended when one of his friends appeared at the scene. Fact 5: The defendants were walking away, but RAMIREZ re-started the fight (actually twice) by attacking one of the youths. Fact 6: With his friend also fighting with him, his friend hit one of the defendants, who in turn punched Ramirez, where he fell to the ground and hit his head on the pavement. Fact 7: Regardless if it was the fall to the ground; a subsequent kick to the head by one of the defendants; or hospital error in his death two days later, it is clear that the incident was not racially-ethnically motivated; and he was not intentionally “murdered”. (He actually had much to do with causing his own death and wanting to kill the defendants.)
Conclusion: This incident and trial has been so polluted by leftist, social-political agenda and activism to even call in question if the defense in the “Hate Crime” trial had been corrupted by the scandalized DOJ, or if the odd “all-white” jury or pool of potential jurors were contaminated. If defense has truly tried to use the excuse of “alcohol, youth, and testosterone” in defending the youth, especially in light of the established facts from the first trial, then there is a serious question here of corruption or incompetence, and retrial is warranted.
For the most meticulously documented, verifiable facts as to what had occurred in this incident Google: “Americans United for True Freedom of Speech”.