Two men in Maine are accused of committing two hate crimes in separate cities — on the same day.
The Press Herald reported that Biddeford, Maine residents Maurice Diggins and Dusty Leo were already accused of attacking a black man in their town last April when prosecutors brought down an additional hate crime charge against them for an attack in Portland.
A federal grand jury indicted Diggins and Leo on one count of "conspiracy to commit a hate crime" each as well as two charges for the alleged assaults and $250,000 fines per count. They're also facing state assault charges, the report noted.
The men allegedly shouted racial epithets at black men in both Biddeford and Portland, cities 18 miles apart. According to the Press Herald's summary of court documents, Diggins, age 34, has one "Dirty White Boy" tattoo and others with Nazi imagery like swastikas. Both men also have extensive rap sheets.
According to their most recent indictments, Leo and Diggins approached a group of black men outside a Portland bar, called them racial epithets and, unprovoked, "hit one of the men and broke his jaw" and hit the other two men. They allegedly tried to follow the man whose jaw they broke as he ran away from them.
After being interviewed by police and allowed to leave the scene, the white men went to a 7-Eleven in Biddeford and yelled an expletive while screaming "who you [sic] eyeballing?" at a black man.
As the report noted, Diggins then approached the man, repeated his comment and blocked the black man from entering the store while Leo came up from behind and hit him hard enough to break his jaw.
"Neither Diggins nor Leo showed up to answer the civil rights complaint and a default judgment ordered them to stay away from the victim in the Biddeford assault, bars them from committing other hate crimes and warns them against contacting witnesses," the Press Herald reported. "If they violate the judgment, they could face up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000."