Posted on 12/17/2009 3:26:03 AM PST by Born Conservative
Minutes after the last kick and punch were thrown in a fatal beating in a public park in Shenandoah on a summer night in 2008, the cover-up began, federal prosecutors say.
Instead of investigating the vicious beating of Luis Ramirez, police officers of the small borough helped the young men conceal evidence and concoct a less-damaging version of what happened that night, advising the young football players that they "needed to get their stories straight" because the man they had just beaten might die, according to an indictment.
The Mexican immigrant's last conscious moments were spent hearing "Go back to Mexico" and "Tell your Mexican friends to get the (expletive) out of Shenandoah." Mr. Ramirez died two days later.
What the officers and their police chief allegedly did that night and in the following weeks and months emerged in a closer reading of the indictments unsealed Tuesday. In the court papers, prosecutors lay out alleged plots that sound like a script for a bad cop movie, ranging from cover-ups to extortion schemes, to shakedowns of bookies, all set in an insular town where everyone knows just about everyone and strangers are not welcome.
The story also has a love-interest angle.
One of the officers, Jason Hayes, was the boyfriend of the mother of Brandon Piekarsky, one of the young men who was involved in the beating. Another officer, Police Chief Matthew Nestor, was friends with the same woman. He had vacationed with her. A third officer, Lt. William Moyer, also had a personal relationship with one of the men who beat Mr. Ramirez. Lt. Moyer's son played football with the players involved in the beating.
If the three officers are convicted, their story could end with them going to federal prison for 20 years.
The story began as Officer Hayes and Lt. Moyer arrived on the scene and detained one of the people who called 911, who identified the young men who beat Mr. Ramirez, according to the indictment. The officers stopped the men, then let them go, prosecutors said.
There was a moment early on when the alleged plot could have been defused, according to the indictment, when an unnamed borough official told Chief Nestor that the investigation should not be conducted by the borough police "because of the identities of the suspects" involved in the beating. But Chief Nestor told the official his department would continue to handle the case, the indictment states.
The officers did interview an eyewitness to the beating, the indictment states, but the officers "deliberately mischaracterized" the witness' account in their official reports to exculpate Brandon Piekarsky in the beating.
In reviewing Lt. Moyer's investigation, the grand jury said his official report included "false and misleading" information.
The manufactured story began to take shape shortly after the attack when the young men gathered at the home of Derrick Donchak, one of the men involved in the beating, the indictment states. At the house, they were advised through Officer Hayes' girlfriend that they needed to "get their stories straight" because Officer Hayes had warned that Mr. Ramirez's condition was deteriorating, "which could result in a homicide investigation."
In the following weeks, Lt. Moyer called one of the parents of the men involved in the beating, advising them to "dispose of the sneakers he wore during the assault" on Mr. Ramirez, the indictment states.
Mr. Piekarsky, Mr. Donchak and Colin Walsh were later charged in connection with the beating. The charges against Mr. Walsh were later dropped and Mr. Piekarsky and Mr. Donchak were found guilty of simple assault. The verdicts enraged leaders of the Hispanic community and prompted Gov. Ed Rendell to ask the U.S. Justice Department to pursue civil rights charges. Mr. Piekarsky, 18, and Mr. Donchak, 19, were each charged with a federal hate crime.
Chief Nestor, Officer Hayes and Lt. Moyer were charged with conspiracy and falsifying documents. Lt. Moyer is also charged with witness tampering, destroying evidence and lying to the FBI.
As to the allegations of the Chief and other cops actions in the illegal immigrant beating case, if they are proved guilty, they should never get out of jail. Such abuses of authority by police officers are among the most heinous imaginable. It doesn't matter if the guy was an illegal immigrant. It also doesn't matter if you believe all the worst things that were alleged about the illegal who was killed (i.e. "dating" the 15 year old sister of the mother of his 3 kids, that he escalated the fight with words, etc.), because it's not about him, it's about the actions of the police officers after the fact.
Link to previous threads on post #22.
An “insular” town in the Shenandoah...is there any place left where there AREN’T any illegals these days?
This is in Pennsylania in the “coal region” of Eastern PA.
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