PORTLAND, Maine – A Biddeford man was sentenced in federal court in Portland for his role in a series of racially motivated assaults against black men in Maine.
On March 10, 2020, a jury convicted Maurice Diggins, 36, of conspiring to commit hate crimes and of actually committing hate crimes.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Diggins to 10 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
The defendant committed a series of unprovoked violent attacks on innocent men because of those men’s race, said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. Today’s sentence, and the jury’s previous verdict in this case, demonstrate that the legal system will not tolerate such acts of racist violence.
In addition to doing grievous harm to individuals, hate crimes engender fear in communities, said U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank of the District of Maine. Violence has no place in Maine, and that is especially true of violence that is motivated by hate.
According to evidence presented at trial, on April 15, 2018, defendant Diggins and his nephew, Dusty Leo, committed two separate racially motivated assaults, one in Portland and one in Biddeford.
The first incident occurred just before 1:00 a.m. in Portland, where Diggins attacked a black Sudanese male without provocation, breaking the victim’s jaw. During that same incident, Diggins and Leo assaulted another black man who was standing nearby.
The second incident occurred approximately an hour later and approximately 20 miles away in Biddeford, where Diggins and Leo drove into the parking lot of a convenience store, where Diggins got out of the truck and approached a black man who was walking toward the store’s entrance. Diggins directed a racial slur at the man and distracted him while Leo got out of the truck and sucker-punched him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.
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Key Facts
- State: Maine
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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