A federal grand jury has indicted Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky with a "hate crime" in the beating death of illegal alien Luis Ramirez in July 2008 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
The indictment comes down a little over 7 months since the two were acquitted of most serious charges in the brawl.
Top: Brandon Piekarsky;
Bottom: Derrick Donchak |
Piekarsky in particular was charged with third degree murder at the time. He was acquitted of all charges except simple assault and an alcohol to minors charge.
Donchak was found guilty of simple assault and 3 counts of furnishing alcohol to minors.
A judge sentenced Brandon Piekarsky to 6 to 23 months and Derrick Donchak, who was also convicted of corruption of minors, to 7 to 23 months.
The incident occurred in July 2008 when a group of teens came upon Luis Ramirez in a park late at night with the underage sister of a girl who thought she was his fiance Crystal Dillman. A confrontation ensued and during the brawl Ramirez was killed.
I followed this case day by day as the charges against the two were brought up and evidence was presented. You can read all of my coverage at the links below and make up your own mind on whether the two were guilty or innocent.
(Shenandoah Teen Trial Coverage: Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, My Verdict, Verdict is in!, Shenandoah Rally and Archive)
Prior to the verdict being announced I did a long post, point-by-point, on why I thought the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Piekarsky killed Ramirez. They did not prove that it was Piekarsky that kicked Ramirez, nor even if a kick was the cause of Ramirez's death. There was conflicting witness testimony and expert testimony.
As for ethnic intimidation - Pennsylvania's version of a Hate Crime - both were acquitted as there was no proof as to who said what and when. I don't agree with the notion of Hate Crime charges, but my argument in regards to the charge in the case would be that if they called Ramirez a racial name, was it simply as an insult or was it really with a deep racial hatred? Witnesses testified that Ramirez used racial slurs as well. I don't think you could say there was any racial motivation behind the attack unless you could prove a history of attacks on specific races by those being charged.
Even then, the case should be on whether there was a murder, not why. "Why" is too subjective and assumes that people can charge someone with a Thought Crime, a dangerous slope. Apparently the feds are into looking for Thought Crimes now, not whether a murder was committed - in a state I might add (there were no crossing of state lines, thus no reasoning for federal intervention in the case against the two) thus superseding the state court ruling.
During the fight Ramirez had time to make phone calls to friends several times. All the teens testified that Ramirez was the aggressor and after a lull in the fight when they were walking away Ramirez again attacked them. All in all the case showed that it was a standard street fight with angry words thrown from both sides. Ramirez lost and died later.
This case did not end for the racist groups however who are hell bent on hanging these two white teens whether they are guilty or innocent.
Now we have the feds stepping in to further prosecute the teens on Hate Crimes charges. This is no doubt due to political correctness and the agitators at pro-illegal alien groups. The lead charger in this specific attack is the race-based group Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) (I find it funny that Ramirez was an illegal alien citizen of Mexico, not a "Mexican- American", yet they are the ones backing all of this), who held rallies in Shenandoah in favor of illegal aliens. They made Ramirez - who was in the park at night with an underage girl - to be a simple victim who was in the country to work. If these groups were the Pope, they would have canonized Ramirez judging by the fluffy soft tinted photos of him they were handing out and carrying around.
The indictment comes on the heels of a concerted effort by the Southern Poverty Law Center, La Raza, MALDEF and a host of other groups all playing the same tune that hate crimes are up against Hispanics. A claim that is based on cherry-picked data and whose reports all link to each groups reports as proof of their claims (in essence one faulty report is cited by another report which then repeats the faulty claim in their friends report, thus backscratching lies into what they hope will be taken as truth).
They point to the FBI "Hate Crimes Report" and - using dates that are convenient to them - simply point out the number of crimes that were supposedly targeted against Hispanics. Note they use the number of crimes, not the percentage. Because as a percentage, the number of "hate crimes" against "Hispanics" (what is a Hispanic by the way?) - whose population has boomed in this country - has actually gone down. They also forgot to mention that a "victim" can be a building or other entity, not just a person. One group found that if you take into account the rise in the Hispanic population that there is actually a decrease by 40% of supposed hate crimes against "Hispanics".
Why do I mention all of this information? You have to keep in mind that this faulty and outright lying data is being used to persecute and prosecute people. Not only that, it is being used to motivate ignorant politicians to take action.
Even
Governor Ed Rendell stepped into the case asking the Justice Department to look into "Civil Rights violations" after urgings from Hispanic groups. Apparently the governor does not understand what a civil right is. Civil Rights are those bestowed on
a citizen by their country. Illegal aliens in the United States are not citizens of the United States and thus do not have civil rights in this country that can be violated.
Maybe Rendell means "Human Rights" violations... such is the man he is. Maybe he should have taken this case to the UN. Pro-illegal alien groups in this country - most of which are race based - have succeeded in confusing our leaders and court systems with the differences between civil rights and human rights. That is because they have a globalist open-border vision where countries don't matter and international courts should allow nations to be disbanded so that more corrupt nations can take the wealth of more developed ones. Not only this, but I also believe they have an outright racist reason. They want their race to be put on a pedestal and receive special treatment at every turn.
Rendell is stepping into all of this to pander to the Hispanic vote no doubt. As if Hispanics actually vote as a large block and all are sympathetic to criminal illegal aliens and racist groups like La Raza and MALDEF. Here's a hint Rendell, they don't and aren't. Take a look at John "Amnesty" McCain and see how his Hispanic vote turned out in the last presidential election after pandering to the racist groups and illegal aliens in this country for years trying to get them amnesty.
There is a charge I agree with though in this indictment from the federal government. The feds have charged law enforcement in Shenandoah with conspiracy charges in the case to cover up evidence.
Separate indictments accuse Shenandoah police chief, Matthew Nestor, and three officers under his command with a variety of charges, including witness tampering and lying to the FBI.
Nestor, Lt. William Moyer, and Officer Jason Hayes were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice during the investigation into the Ramirez beating. Moyer was charged with witness and evidence tampering, and lying to the FBI.
If the FBI and the federal government has proof of this, then the corrupt law enforcement should be held to account.
However, the feds going after Piekarsky and Donchak after they have been acquitted of murder is a witch hunt. In this country we have rules against Double Jeopardy for a reason. No one can be charged with the same crime twice. Piekarsky cannot be charged with murder again since he has been acquitted. The Double Jeopardy provision is in place so that someone cannot be targeted and harassed in a witch hunt. In this case it seems like the feds are bowing to the wishes of racist groups like MALDEF who really, really want to make a couple white teens in a street fight with a Hispanic illegal alien into the "poster children" of a supposed rise in hate in America against Hispanics.
All of this against Piekarsky and Donchak is purely political in nature and just another tack these racist groups are using to destroy our country and politicians are attempting to use to garner the fallacy of a Hispanic vote.
In other news... there were no federal hate crime charges filed against the person/persons who drove around in a car days after the trial with "Kill Brandon N' Derrick" written across the back window. They probably weren't the right color or race to file a hate crimes charge against.
(Shenandoah Teen Trial Coverage: Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, My Verdict, Verdict is in!, Shenandoah Rally and Archive)
