Thread: PA Jury: Immigrant's Beating Death No Hate Crime

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May 2, 3:39 AM EDT

Pa. jury: Immigrant's beating death no hate crime

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer

POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- Prosecutors called the beating death of an illegal immigrant from Mexico a hate crime, and they urged an all-white jury in Pennsylvania coal country to punish two white teenagers for their roles in the attack.

Instead, the jury found the teens innocent of all serious charges, a decision that elicited cheers and claps from the defendants' families and friends - and cries of outrage from the victim's.

Brandon Piekarsky, 17, was acquitted of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation, while Derrick Donchak, 19, was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Both were convicted of simple assault late Friday following a trial in which jurors were left to sort out the facts of an epithet-filled brawl that pitted popular football players against a 25-year-old Hispanic man, Luis Ramirez, who appeared willing to fight.

A representative of Ramirez's family said the jurors got it wrong.

"There's been a complete failure of justice," said Gladys Limon, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who attended the trial and informed Ramirez's family of the verdict. "It's just outrageous and very difficult to understand how any juror could have had reasonable doubt."

She said the evidence "clearly established that Luis Ramirez was brutally beaten."

Prosecutors cast Ramirez as the victim of a gang of drunken white teens motivated by a dislike of their small coal town's burgeoning Hispanic population. But the jury evidently sided with defense attorneys, who called Ramirez the aggressor and characterized the brawl as a street fight that ended tragically.

Jury foreman Eric Macklin said he sympathized with Ramirez's loved ones but that the evidence pointed to an acquittal.

"I feel bad for Luis's friends and family. I know they feel they haven't gotten justice," he said.

The case exposed ethnic tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 that has lured Hispanic residents drawn by cheap housing and jobs in nearby factories and farm fields. Ramirez moved to the town about seven years ago from Iramuco, Mexico, working in a factory and picking strawberries and cherries.

The 2000 U.S. Census showed that Schuylkill County's population was 96.6 percent white, with 1.1 percent of the county listed as Hispanic or Latino.

The fight began late July 12 when a half-dozen teens, all Shenandoah residents who played football at Shenandoah Valley High School, were walking home from a block party and came across Ramirez and his 15-year-old girlfriend in a park.

Brian Scully, 18, asked the girl, "Isn't it a little late for you to be out?" That enraged Ramirez, who began yelling in Spanish and dialing friends on his cell phone. Scully admitted to shouting ethnic slurs. The verbal sparring soon turned into a physical altercation as Ramirez and Piekarsky traded blows, though prosecutors and defense attorneys disputed who threw the first punch.

Donchak then entered the fray and wound up on top of Ramirez. Prosecutors said he pummeled Ramirez, holding a small piece of metal in his fist to give his punches more power. Defense attorneys said Donchak tried to break up the fight between Piekarsky and Ramirez and denied he had a weapon.

The two sides eventually went their separate ways. But Scully kept yelling at Ramirez, leading the immigrant to charge after the group.

Colin Walsh, 17, then hit Ramirez, knocking him out.

"Does Mr. Ramirez fit the description of an innocent soul who just happened to get picked on by a group of kids?" defense attorney Fred Fanelli asked jurors in closing arguments. "He's the only adult, and he makes some bad choices."

Fanelli accused prosecutors of ignoring exculpatory evidence, including statements by two of Ramirez's friends shortly after the fight that the kicker wore white sneakers - the color Scully was wearing.

Fanelli also said prosecutors offered leniency to key witnesses - including Scully and Walsh, who admitted to knocking Ramirez unconscious with a single punch to the face - giving them a strong motive to lie.

Walsh pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Ramirez's civil rights and could be out of prison in four years. On the witness stand, he identified Piekarsky as the kicker. So did Scully, who told jurors he tried to kick the immigrant but missed. Scully is charged in juvenile court with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation.

Fanelli derided the prosecution testimony as "bought and paid for."

Robert Franz, the prosecutor, denied any misconduct on the part of the district attorney's office.

Displaying a candid photo of Ramirez, Franz told the jurors, "He was assaulted and he was beaten, and he was killed for walking the streets of Shenandoah. He didn't deserve that."

I have to admit, I am very surprised by the outcome.

25-year-old Hispanic man, Luis Ramirez, and his 15-year-old girlfriend

for a more complete story about the trial, go here

"There's been a complete failure of justice," said Gladys Limon, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who attended the trial and informed Ramirez's family of the verdict. "It's just outrageous and very difficult to understand how any juror could have had reasonable doubt."

MALDEF and :LA RAZA eating crow...I'm loving it. Perhaps these teens should sue them for defamation of character. The fact is while the defense claimed that Ramirez was being beaten, cell phone records show he was calling his adult friends to come and fight with the teens, instead of calling 911. Ramirez was no innocent bystander....the girlfriend of one of his friends testified for the prosecution...of course the media won't print that. Let's put a copy of the testimony up for all the public to read ....this was no hate crime...these were drunk teens and an illegal Mexican adult out with a young teen girl getting into a stupid fight and the Hispanic "Al Sharptons" falsely proclaiming "hate crime" and playing the race card to the media.

Again, MALDEF, La RAZA....eat crow.

Hispanic "Al Sharptons" To Funny

From what I read months ago about the events, this was a proper decision by the Jury.

thank you...I've also coined another catchy phrase, ....

La Raza is the Hispanic ACORN and that is really true... race-baiting diversity peddling thugs who have made hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public donations by their extortion tactics.....demanding that corporate boards hire Hispanics, demanding that government agencies hire Hispanics simply because of race/ethnicity.....using "diversity" as a way to bully themselves onto corporate boards and postitions of power....shameful...threatening to call anyone a racist if they don't abide by their demands whether it's CNN's Lou Dobbs, ALIPAC'ers, members of Congress, etc.

La RAZA is the Hispanic ACORN....remember that.