Four men charged with hate crime in beating of Black man at Washington bar, feds say

Four men from the Pacific Northwest have been indicted on federal hate crime charges after they were accused of beating a Black man while calling him racial slurs at a bar in Lynnwood, Washington, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

Jason DeSimas, 44, of Tacoma; Jason Stanley, 43, of Boise, Idaho; Randy Smith, 38, of Eugene, Oregon; and Daniel Delbert Dorson, 24, of Corvallis, Oregon, are accused of committing a Dec. 8, 2018, “racially motivated assault,” where “they, among other things, punched and kicked a Black man and made derogatory comments about his actual and perceived race,” the release said. They’re also accused of “assaulting two other men who intervened to protect the victim from their attack,” according to the release.

Each defendant is also separately charged with “giving false statements to the FBI during the investigation,” the release said.

DeSimas is accused of lying about any of the defendants using racial slurs during the assault, according to the release. Stanley allegedly told investigators he was not even in Washington on the day of the assault, the release said.

Smith is accused of lying “about how he had bloodied his knuckles,” according to the release. Dorson falsely told investigators that “he had not planned to attend a white supremacist’s ‘Martyr’s Day’ observance in … Washington and that he had not owned a jacket associated with white supremacy hate groups prior to the weekend of Dec. 8, 2018,” according to the release.

The maximum penalty for the hate crime charge is 10 years in prison, while the maximum penalty for the charges of making false statements is five years, the release said.

This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Four men charged with hate crime in beating of Black man at Washington bar, feds say."