Dusty Leo, Hate Crime, Maine 2020

Biddeford Man Sentenced for Committing and Conspiring to Commit Federal Hate Crime

PORTLAND, Maine: A Biddeford man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for his role in committing and conspiring to commit a federal hate crime, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Dusty Leo, 30, to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims. Leo pleaded guilty on February 25, 2020.

Following a three-day trial in March 2020, a jury convicted Leo’s co-conspirator and uncle, Maurice Diggins, of conspiring to commit and committing a series of racially motivated assaults against Black men in Maine. For his convictions, Diggins was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

“The crimes committed by Mr. Leo and his co-conspirator injured and traumatized their victims, and also traumatized the communities in which they occurred,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark for the District of Maine. “No one should be targeted for violence because of the color of their skin or their ethnicity. Crimes like this tear at the very fabric of our society. This prosecution makes clear that individuals who commit hate-motivated crimes will be made to pay for their actions.

“Today’s sentence should make it crystal clear that those who traffic in hate, targeting people in our community because of their skin color, will be held accountable for their horrific, violent crimes,” said Special Agent in Charge Joseph R. Bonavolonta of the FBI Boston Field Office. “No one should be afraid to walk down the street and be targeted by an act of violence based on how they look, where they are from, or any part of their identity.

According to Leo’s guilty plea and evidence presented at Diggins’s trial, on April 15, 2018, Diggins attacked a Sudanese man without provocation outside of a bar in Portland, Maine. The assault, which broke the victim’s jaw, was immediately followed by an attack on another Black man who was standing on the street nearby.

The Biddeford Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila Sawyer and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Tim Visser prosecuted the case.