Vol. 73/No. 21      June 1, 2009

Brandon Piekarsky, 17, was acquitted of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation. Derrick Donchak, 19, was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Both were convicted on the lesser charge of simple assault. It is possible they will serve no prison time.

Ramírez died of severe head trauma on July 14, 2008, after being beaten to the ground and then kicked in the head two days earlier by several Shenandoah youth. During the attack, the assailants yelled racial slurs, according to eyewitnesses.

At the preliminary hearing, witness Eileen Burke testified that she heard Piekarsky yell at a friend of Ramírez at the scene, “Tell your … Mexican friends to get the f… out of Shenandoah or you’ll be laying next to him.”

During the trial the prosecution showed a photo of Donchak at a Halloween party three months after Ramirez’s death. He was wearing a T-shirt with the words “U.S. Border Patrol” written on it.

Defense attorneys said Ramírez was the aggressor and described the case as “a street fight that ended tragically,” reported the Associated Press.

A third youth, 17-year-old Colin Walsh, also assaulted Ramírez and is in federal prison for violating his civil rights. Walsh testified against Piekarsky and Donchak. The third-degree murder charge against him was dropped in April.

Brian Scully, 18, is charged in juvenile court with assault and ethnic intimidation. He testified that he shouted ethnic slurs at Ramírez and told him to “go back to Mexico.”

There has been much discussion of the verdict in Shenandoah. Noreen Bayliff told the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, “If it was the other way around, they’d be hung. The man died: his status of being illegal is not the issue… . I was born in Belfast. I saw some of it when I first came here, but not as much as with the Mexicans.”

Gladys Limón, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), attended the trial and called the verdict “a complete outrage.” She said MALDEF calls for federal charges to be filed in the case.
 
 
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