Indictments in immigrant beating death

On Dec. 15, federal prosecutors charged a police chief and two officers with orchestrating a cover-up in the racially motivated fatal beating of 25-year-old Luis Ramírez, a Mexican immigrant, by white teenagers in Shenandoah, Pa.

The indictment accused Police Chief Matthew Nestor, Lt. William Moyer and Patrolman Jason Hayes of conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering evidence, witness tampering and lying to the FBI in the hate crime case against two popular high school football players.

The federal indictment also charged Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky, former Shenandoah High School athletes, with a federal hate crime in the beating death of Ramírez in July 2008. Donchak was also charged with conspiring with police in the cover-up and giving false statements to the police.

A state court had previously charged Donchak and Piekarsky with beating Ramírez to death. State prosecutors pressed ethnic intimidation charges against the two, who yelled racial epithets at Ramírez while Piekarsky gripped a piece of metal to give his punches more power.

In May, despite evidence of a hate-driven attack, a racist all-white jury acquitted Piekarsky of charges of third-degree murder of Ramírez, Donchak of aggravated assault and both men of ethnic intimidation. The two were found guilty and sentenced to six to 23 months in prison for only simple assault and underage drinking. Piekarsky was scheduled to be released from prison on Dec. 24.

A third teen, Colin Walsh, who faced state court charges in Ramírez’s death, pled guilty in federal court to violating Ramí­rez’s civil rights. He testified against Donchak and Piekarsky at their trial last spring.

The federal indictment states that the confrontation began when a half-dozen high school football players were heading home from a party and saw Ramírez and his white girlfriend, Crystal Dillman, in a park. An argument began and a fight broke out that resulted in Ramírez being punched in the face, and then kicked in the head while unconscious.

The teenagers fled the scene leaving Ramírez mortally wounded on the street. They then ran into police officers Hayes and Moyer, who were responding to a 911 call about the assault. As their luck would have it, Hayes was dating Piekarsky’s mother, while Nestor was a friend of hers and Moyer’s son played with Piekarsky on the football team.

The officers released the popular white football players, but later coached the teens about how they should give their version of events to authorities. The indictment says that Piekarsky’s mother told other teens gathered at Donchak’s house that Hayes said they needed to “get their stories straight.”

Pattern of police abuse

Nestor, Capt. Jamie Gennarini and the borough of Shenandoah were named in a civil suit filed in 2006 that alleged borough police beat to death David Vega, a Puerto Rican youth, in November 2004, and then hung his body from the bars of his holding cell so his death would look like a suicide.

The county coroner’s autopsy determined that Vega committed suicide since Nestor claimed bruises on his body were due to Vega resisting arrest. However, a second autopsy arranged by the Vega family confirmed he “suffered extensive, massive injuries consistent with a profound beating. ... The defendant did not die of hanging,” the lawsuit said. (Philly.com, Dec. 16)

David Murphy Sr., who is African-American, filed another lawsuit against Nestor. Murphy was arrested in March on drug charges. His lawsuit charges that police refused to allow him to take a prescribed blood thinner, and that Nestor punched him in the back, where he had undergone spinal fusion surgery.

Murphy later started to experience severe pain in his chest and arms, and suffered a heart attack. He stated that Nestor threatened to kill him if he filed suit. His lawsuit says that Nestor threatened that Murphy would not “make it out of the Shenandoah jail alive ... that he would end up like that Mexican who ‘hung’ himself.”

“Police acted as feudal warlords in this coal town community that people were afraid of,” said attorney John Karoly, who represents both Murphy and Vega’s parents in federal lawsuits against the police and the borough. Karoly added, “The pattern certainly starts to appear that minorities took the thrust of their abuse.” (Philly.com, Dec. 16)

Latino/a advocates who saw Ramírez’s death as part of a rising tide of hate crimes against immigrants in the U.S. denounced the May verdicts. Since his death, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has worked closely with the Ramírez family seeking justice. They launched the successful national petition campaign that led to the indictments by asking the Department of Justice to investigate the hate crime death.

Gladys Limon, MALDEF staff attorney, stated, “Every life matters and violent actions fueled by hatred and intolerance will not be tolerated anywhere.”

Teresa Gutierrez, co-coordinator of the New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, told Workers World, “The coverup of the brutal murder of Luis Ramírez is yet another example of the raging war against immigrants in this country. On the other hand, the resistance of Luis Ramírez’s family, especially that of his partner, Crystal Dillman, who has not only spoken out courageously against the murder of her husband, but has been speaking out in defense of all immigrants, is an indication of the growing fightback mood among immigrants and their advocates.

“On May Day 2010, Luis Ramírez will definitely be remembered across the country.”