Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Four members of a White supremacist organization have been sentenced to jail on hate crime charges for assaulting a Black man at a bar in 2018.
The four men -- Jason DeSimas, 45; Jason Stanley, 46; Randy Smith, 42; and Daniel Dorson, 27 -- were sentenced after pleading guilty to the Dec. 8, 2018, beating of a Black man identified in court documents as T.S. at a Lynnwood, Wash., bar where the victim was working as a disc jockey, the Justice Department said in a statement Monday.
Prosecutors said the men had beaten T.S. when he attempted to move Stanley away from his music equipment.
"All four defendants punched and kicked T.S., even after he fell to the floor, while some in the group called T.S. racial slurs," the Justice Department said.
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T.S. was beaten unconscious and suffered serious injuries, including bleeding and swelling in his eye and bruising on his back, chest and legs.
Court documents state that when two bystanders attempted to intervene, the four men turned their assault on them. The bystanders also sustained injuries, prosecutors said.
"Imagine being attacked by four men purely because of the color of your skin. The victim in this case does not have to imagine," Special Agent in Charge Richard Collodi of the FBI Seattle Field Office said in a statement. "Tragically, he lived it. With today's sentences, my hope is the victim feels some sense of justice has been served."
DeSimas was sentenced to 48 months' imprisonment, Stanley to 47 months and nine days, Smith to 42 months and Dorson to 28 months.
The four men admitted in their plea agreements to being either members of White supremacist organization the Hammerskins or its Crew 38 support group.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Hammerskins is "one of the oldest hardcore racist skinhead groups in the United States" and has a long history of violence, with Crew 38 consisting of female associates and men interested in becoming members of the parent organization.
Prosecutors said the assault happened as a large group of Hammerskins and Crew 38 members were in Lynnwood to attend an annual Martyr's Day event, which the ADL says marks the death of neo-Nazi Robert Jay Mathews, who was shot and killed in a shootout with the FBI on Dec. 8, 1984.
"The myth of White supremacy is alive and well and can foment dangerous behavior and violence," U.S. Attorney Nick Brown for the Western District of Washington said in a statement. "These particular defendants are deeply steeped in racial hatred, expressed through their Nazi tattoos, White supremacist symbols on their clothing and their use of racist slurs.
"They came to our area to honor a man who died leading a racist and violent gang, and thought they could act on their beliefs with impunity. But the victims and witnesses of their brutal assault have proved they are far stronger than these four."
