Eugene, Washington - The Justice Department announced that four men from across the Pacific Northwest were indicted last week for federal hate crimes and making false statements in connection with a Dec. 8, 2018, racially-motivated assault.
Jason DeSimas, 44, of Tacoma, Washington; Jason Stanley, 43, of Boise, Idaho; Randy Smith, 38, of Eugene, Oregon; and Daniel Delbert Dorson, 24, of Corvallis, Oregon, are charged with aiding and abetting one another, as they, among other things, punched and kicked a Black man and made derogatory comments about his actual and perceived race at a bar in Lynnwood, Washington. The indictment also charges the defendants with assaulting two other men who intervened to protect the victim from their attack. Dorson will appear in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
In addition to the hate crime charges, the indictment charges each defendant, separately, with giving false statements to the FBI during the investigation. Specifically, the indictment alleges DeSimas falsely claimed that neither he nor anyone else used a racial slur during the assault; Stanley falsely asserted that he was not even in the state of Washington on the date of the assault; Smith allegedly lied about how he had bloodied his knuckles; and Dorson falsely claimed that he had not planned to attend a white supremacist’s “Martyr’s Day” observance in the state of Washington and that he had not owned a jacket associated with white supremacy hate groups prior to the weekend of Dec. 8, 2018.
The hate crime charge carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. The false statements charge carries a maximum penalty of five years.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until each is proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ye-Ting Woo and Trial Attorney Christine M. Siscaretti of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
