Washington - The US Department of Justice announced last night that a federal jury in Scranton, Pennsylvania has found Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak guilty of committing hate crime assaults in the fatal beating of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA in July 2008. Piekarsky and Donchak were found guilty based on 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 threaten or use violence or interfere with an individual's right to choose where he or she lives. The jury also found Donchak guilty of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Senator Menendez (D-NJ), who advocated on behalf of federal involvement in this case and co-sponsored the landmark Matthew Shepard legislation approved last year that gave federal law enforcement greater ability to prosecute hate crimes, applauded the successful completion of the investigation and final verdict of the jury:
"I'm thankful to see the federal justice system heeded our call to fully investigate this case to help bring to justice the individuals who committed this terrible and shameful crime. As this case has so forcefully proved, no one cracks down on hate crimes with more focus or authority than federal law enforcement, which is why the new Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill that gives federal law enforcement an expanded role in prosecuting hate crimes is so important." said Senator Menendez.
In December 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury returned multiple indictments for the racially-motivated fatal beating of Luis Ramirez, a Latino male, in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania committed by a group of teenagers. One of the indictments charged Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky with a federal hate crime for fatally beating Luis Ramirez while shouting racial epithets at him. The indictment also alleged that, immediately following the beating, Donchak, Piekarsky and others, including members of the Shenandoah Police Department, participated in a scheme to obstruct the investigation of the fatal assault. As a result of this alleged obstruction, Donchak was also charged with three additional counts for conspiring to obstruct justice and related offenses. The federal jury's final verdict announced today was based on its consideration of evidence from multiple witnesses presented at the trial that led them to determine that the defendants did in fact fatally beat Luis
Ramirez because of his Latino ethnic origin and conspired to obstruct the law because they didn't want Latinos living in Shenandoah. Both Donchak and Piekarsky face sentences of up to life in prison on the hate crime charge. In addition, Donchak faces up to a total of 25 years for the obstruction of the law and conspiracy charge.
###
