January 15

On this date in 2000 in a federal courtroom in Alabama, Chris Scott Gilliam, 28, of Foley, Alabama, and a member of the Neo-Nazi hate group, National Alliance, is sentenced to ten years in prison without parole after pleading guilty to federal firearms charges. Gilliam, an Alabama plumber, attempted to purchase ten hand grenades from an undercover federal agent which he intended to use in a planned letter bomb campaign; his intended targets were unknown victims in the Washington, D.C., area. A search of his home turned up an Uzi-type rifle with silencer, bomb-making instructions and white supremacist literature, including white supremacist coloring books for children. Gilliam was released from prison on February 25, 2008. 

On January 15, 2008, in Paramount, California, near Paramount High School three Hispanic members of a predomiently Hispanic and anti-African-American street gang—Anthony Beltran, Omar Nunez, and Josue Moreno—accosted two African-American male teenagers. Testimony at trial revealed Beltran told the 12-grade Paramount High School victim, "We're going to kill you niggers and we don't care about you niggers and stuff like that," and Nunez said, "We're going to kill you guys." Moreno also yelled racial slurs at the time. Beltran then pulled a semiautomatic weapon out while saying, "We're going to kill you, you're a nigger, and we don't care." The incident was caught on video; it did not escalate because Deputy Sheriff Stephen Capra, who saw Beltran pull out a weapon, happened on the scene. Omar Nunez and Josue Moreno had a joint jury trial, and both of the Varrio Sans Street gang members were convicted of two counts of Assault With a Firearm and two counts of Criminal Threats with hate crime and criminal street gang enhancements. Nunez's convictions also included personal gun use enhancements for both charges against him. Moreno was sentenced to 14 years 8 months in prison, and Nunez was given a 21-year prison sentence. Both apealed their convictions to the Second District California Court of Appeals of California, Division Eight, and on January 13, 2011, the appeals court upheld the convictions. Josue Moreno was also convicted of Assault With a Deadly Weapon with a hate crime enhancement for a January 9, 2008, incident involving African-American victims. That conviction was also upheld by the same appeals court. We do not have information about Beltran's case which was tried separately.

In a Dane County, Wisconsin courtroom on this date in 2009, two white men from Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, Kyle B. Daggett, 19, and Tyler J. Bronkhorst, 17, were arraigned on felony hate crime charges stemming from a January, 2008, incident where a deer carcass was left on a car at the home of a biracial Cottage Grove family. Authorities allege that Daggett and Bronkhorst, both Monona Grove High School students at the time, engaged in a pattern of harassing behavior toward the Renee and Arthur Roach family in 2008, which is said to have included vandalism and racially-threatening and harassing phone calls. Prior to their 2009 arrests in Cottage Grove for the alleged incidents against the Roach family, on May 7, 2008, Daggett and Bronkhorst were arrested in Madison, Wisconsin after allegedly leading police on a chase in the mostly non-white Allied Drive neighborhood after damaging a street sign. Madison police then recovered weapons and ammunition from the two men, including a loaded, concealed shotgun, and shells that had KKK symbols on them. WKOW television reported that Daggett has a MySpace web page displaying a swastika, confederate flags and references to white supremacy. On February 3, 2009, before his trial, the hate crime charge against Daggett was dismissed by the judge. However, on September 3, 2009, Tyler Bronkhorst was charged in Dane County Circuit Court with felony intimidation of a witness and four counts of felony bail jumping for alleged violations of his bail conditions, including a condition that he have no contact with Kyle Daggett. Bronkhorst allegedly directed Daggett to learn what he could about the habits and routines of one of the witnesses in the case against the two men so that Bronkhorst could "kill him." Bronkhorst was scheduled to stand trial in January 2010 on charges of stalking as a hate crime, criminal damage to property, and disorderly conduct. However, on May 10, 2010, Tyler Bronkhorst, 19, pleaded no contest to stalking as a hate crime for harassing the Roach family. Bronkhorst also pleaded no contest to felony counts of bail jumping, intimidating a witness, and criminal damage to property. The criminal damage crime was related to him damaging a city street sign in the Allied Drive neighborhood and for putting urine in the gas tank of a truck belonging to a person with whom he had an unrelated dispute. Tyler Bronkhorst was sentenced to a year in jail and five years on probation with the condition that he is barred from associating with white supremacist groups. Kyle Daggett was scheduled to stand trial on Spetember 14, 2009, on charges of criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct, and carrying a concealed weapon. However, on May 26, 2010, Daggett pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, and he was placed in a deferred prosecution program.

In the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, Washington, on this date in 2009, Alfred Salway, 52, of Tacoma, is alleged to have chased a lesbian and to have threatened to stab her in the eyes while repeatedly referring to her sexual orientation. Salway—who has been convicted previously of committing a number of crimes in his past including theft, criminal trespass, attempted carjacking and fourth-degree assault—was charged with a hate crime (malicious harassment) in the King County Superior Court on January 28, 2009.

On this date in 2009 in New York City, Mahoud Samed Almahadin, 18, who uses the alias Matt Connor and who claims to be part of an anti-Scientology group called Anonymous, was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. Almahadin entered the Church of Scientology at 227 West 46th Street in Manhattan, and with an accomplice nearby, Jacob Speregen 21, of Brooklyn, Almahadin smeared pubic hair-laced petrolium jelly on a television and on bookshelves, and knocked books off their shelves on January 8, 2009. The incident was videotaped by Almahadin's accomplice who was not charged until January 27, 2009. Speregen, a part-time film student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at the time of the attack, was charged with criminal mischief and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. The videotape of the incident was later posted on YouTube. On February 23, 2010, Mahoud S. Almahadin pled guilty to criminal mischief in the New York City Criminal Court (People vs. Almahadin, Mahoud; Criminal Docket 2009NY00410), and on April 15, 2010, he was ordered to pay damages, perform community service, and stay away from the Church of Scientology for five years. On September 21, 2010, Speregen was similarly sentenced: he too was ordered to pay damages, perfrom community service, and stay away from the midtown Manhattan Church of Scientology for five years. Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon said of the sentencing, "This decision by the Court sends a strong message to Anonymous—and any hate group—that their actions will not be tolerated and that the right to practice one's religion will be protected." Anonymous went on to vandalize the Church of Scientology building in downtown Ocala, Florida (Marion County) in late June, 2011.

In Biddeford, Maine on this date in 2011, in the early morning hours four or five men went to the Sleepy Hollow Motel on Elm Street, and using a baseball bat, allegedly brutally beat a 27-year-old black man in the head several times while hurling racial slurs at him and telling him to "Go back to Africa before we lynch you." The victim, who had racist telephone messages left for him allegedly by those who were arrested, had been sleeping in the motel room with his fiancée and four-year-old daughter at the time of the assault. As a result of the attack, the victim, who suffered a serious head injury, was hospitalized at Maine Medical Center. Arrested were three white men—Dale M. Pinkham Jr., 20, of Old Orchard Beach, Maine who was charged with disorderly conduct, carrying a concealed weapon (brass knuckles) and aggravated assault; Darren Crawford, 20, of Biddeford, who was charged with elevated aggravated assault; and, Michael Gagne, 18, of Old Orchard Beach, who was charged with aggravated assault. Other arrests may be made, and the Maine Attorney General's Office is investigating the assault as a possible hate crime. In response to the attack on January 24, 2011, the mayor of Biddeford, Joanne Twomey, stated the following at an anti-hate crime/pro-diversity gathering outside City Hall that was attended by about 50 people who braved the bitter cold weather: "We wanted to send a message to the state of Maine that Biddeford doesn’t tolerate hate crimes."