In Shenandoah, PA, the community is inching its way toward justice.
Three federal indictments that include commission of a hate crime, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, official misconduct, and extortion have been recently handed down by a federal grand jury in the case of the fatal beating of Luis Ramirez. On July 12, 2008, Ramirez was beaten to death when his alleged assailants attacked him in the street on their way home from a town festival, kicking and hitting him while members of the group yelled racial slurs. Ramirez died from the injuries he sustained in that hateful attack, leaving behind his partner and their two children, whose interests the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) represented in court soon thereafter.
In spite of the horrific details of the crime, damning evidence, and a number of serious criminal charges, the state trial released the defendants with little more than a slap on the wrist. This was not a trial for a petty infraction mind you, but rather a case whose outcome should have found justice for a man's death and for his surviving family. Therefore, MALDEF called upon the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the fatal beating and the accounts of police misconduct that were brought forth in testimony at the trial.
The indictments, just unsealed yesterday after being returned on December 10, 2009, allege that Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky--the primary defendants in the murder trial--and others, including some members of the Shenandoah Police Department, conspired to obstruct the investigation of Ramirez's murder. An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt, so justice still has yet to be served.
If convicted, Donchak and Piekarsky would face the maximum penalty of life in prison for the hate crime charge.
Shenandoah Police Chief Matthew Nestor, Lieutenant William Moyer, and Police Officer Jason Hayes are also facing charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in the investigation. Moyer has further been charged with lying to the FBI and witnesses and tampering with evidence. The obstruction charges carry penalties of 20 years in prison per count, and the defendants could each face an additional five years for conspiring. Moyer faces another five years of prison time for his additional charges.
Chief Nestor and Captain Jaime Gennarini have also been charged with multiple counts of extortion and civil rights violations that extend far beyond this one case. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each extortion count and a maximum penalty of ten years for conspiracy to violate civil rights.
In a statement from the DOJ, Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said, "The power granted to law enforcement officers does not place them above the law. We will continue to aggressively enforce the law to combat obstruction and corruption in law enforcement agencies. We thank the FBI for their work in this investigation. Violence motivated by bigotry and hate has no place in America, and yet it remains all too prevalent in many of our communities. The Civil Rights Division stands ready to bring perpetrators of hate crimes to justice."
As Attorney General Eric Holder has declared before, it looks like the Civil Rights Division is indeed "back and open for business." Given the rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years, which we've written about here, here, and here, this indictment sends a message not only to Shenandoah, but to all Americans, that violence against anyone, including Latinos, cannot and will not be tolerated. The DOJ should be applauded for being deliberate and thorough in their investigation, which will hopefully begin the process of healing from hate for the Ramirez family, Shenandoah, and our nation.
Anytime a member of the police does something, it eventually gets buried.
The question now comes, what the heck is the government going to do about bigger ploblems?
Why is arpio still walking around the streets with a badge?
Where I live, you cant drive across the street without police posted running your plates and pulling you and every person with an older car on the road.
Not that many years ago a police officer beat up a young person because he was could not speak english.
The cop got fired, but latter the charges didn't stick.
The the city next to us has police officers giving out tickets to people who cant speak english, because apparently there is a federal in place. It took one of the victims hiring an ambulance chaser to get the story out in the open. There are plenty of police departments across the country, this is not small town mentality.
Today the Chief of Police was denied bail in connection with the federal indictments brought against four police officers and the two high school football stud punks who killed a Latino resident. The judge said that this officer continued intimidating witnesses even after he became aware that he was under investigation. This man is truly dangerous. He's a thug in a police uniform. He was tolerated a very long time in this corrupt town.
Three other police officers were fitted with ankle bracelets keeping track of their whereabouts in connection with their bail.
This is a very small police department - fewer than ten officers.
The elected officials of this town should convene an emergency meeting no later than tomorrow. The agenda should be the dissolution of the police department in the entirety. The chief should be dismissed for cause. The other three officers under indictment should be dismissed for cause. The department should be disbanded, and a contract put in place with the PA State Police to conduct local law enforcement.
Should the elected officials fail to have the courage to disband this criminal police department, the citizenry should immediately start recall petitions to change the entire city government.
A clean sweep is arriving in Shenandoah - one way or another.
This is Pennsylvania's equivalent of the Alabama church bomber and child killer being aquitted because the jury just could not convict a christian man of any crime...
In Luzerne County (Wilkes Barre, Hazleton), a judge in juvenile court did a deal to close the county detention facility and utilize a 'for-profit' detention system owned by a few friends.
The judges then went on the take, and got paid for each juvenile sent to these facilities - for each day the juvenile spent in detention. This deal encompassed about five-thousand juveniles over about five years, and involved almost $3,000,000 in kickbacks to two judges.
Everyone was asleep at the switch regarding this scam. Teenagers who may not have committed a minor crime arrived in these judges courtrooms without constitutionally-guaranteed legal representation. In seconds, they were in detention. One boy who unwittingly bought a stolen bicycle from his cousin went to jail, and more than four years later is still enmeshed in this corrupt jail system.
Probation officers never complained about these judges. Often defense attorneys did not complain. Complaints fell on deaf ears within the Pennsylvania judicial branch. Business was so good that these crooks built a second facility.
Eventually the FBI arrived on the scene. Sweetheart plea deals for these judges (87-months) were rejected by a federal judge, and lots of other crooks on the take with government fixers will now be escorted into courtrooms for trials with these two judges.
A bigoted mayor, Lou Barletta, went on a vendetta against the Latinos of this old coal town. This vendetta became a cause celebre' on the Lou Dobbs show on CNN.
When one reads the decision by the federal district judge about the goings on here, you see how government is corrupted. In Hazleton, the goon cops would sit outside legal establishments, like restaurants, looking to harrass Latinos who might enter to eat. Eventually, these legal establishments who had long served this community were destroyed because people would not come there to be harrassed by the police.
This old-coal town has been dying a slow death for a long time. And, as population declines, real estate values and rents also decline. As rents decline, poorer people move in. And these poor people included 'impure' Latinos who were not welcome.
Mayor Lou Barletta had higher political aims. Those failed. And, he brought this city close to bankruptcy with these extensive legal expenses which were doomed to fail from the outset, once the constitution of the United States was brought to bear.
That was before Barletta, Hazelton, and Shenandoah made it known as a hate crime leader in the USA...
This particular town has known of its corrupt, criminal police department for a long time. There have been deaths while in police custody. And, the police are on the take. Certainly from illegal gambling. Likely from prostitution.
And, just like the old South, the police (and those who support the police) are filled with hate. Hate infects the entire body politic. So the police determine what is the law and who suffers the effects of these thugs in blue. The mayor resigned because he could get no assistance in the town council to 'rein-in' the police. In other words, you could not fire them, and you could not control them. These criminal cops were so obtuse as to lie to the FBI.
In these small towns, everyone is connected (or left out in the cold). Here, one cop was dating the mother of one of the football punks. Another copy was connected to the family of the other football punk. And, so the 'coverup' story began, just like the 'good-old-boys' of the Old South, just as the assault ended.
The law is arriving in Shenandoah, and heads are going to roll. I predict that when civil money judgements arrive here, this town will come to a righteous, inglorious end.