Sean Popejoy, Hate Crime, Arkansas 2011

GREEN FOREST, Ark. – Sean Popejoy, 19, was convicted of a federal hate crime and conspiracy to commit a federal hate crime in a U.S. District Court in the Western District of Arkansas.

Sean Popejoy, a resident of Green Forest, Ark., pleaded guilty to one count of committing a federal hate crime and one count of conspiring to commit a federal hate crime. This is the first conviction for a violation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was enacted in October 2009.

According to information presented during the plea hearing, Popejoy was part of a conspiracy to threaten and injure five Hispanic men who had pulled into a gas station parking lot on the early morning hours of June 20, 2010. The co-conspirators pursued the victims in a truck and Popejoy leaned outside of the front passenger window and waived a tire wrench at the victims and continued to threaten and hurl racial epithets at the victims.

“James Byrd, Jr. and Matthew Shepard were brutally murdered more than a decade ago, and today the first defendant is convicted for a hate crime under the critical new law enacted in their names,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “It is unacceptable that violent acts of hate committed because of someone’s race continue to occur in 2011, and the department will continue to use every available tool to identify and prosecute hate crimes whenever and wherever they occur.

“It is terrible and disturbing that violence motivated by hatred of another’s race continues to occur,” said Conner Eldridge, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. “We are committed to prosecuting such crimes in the Western District of Arkansas.”

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison. Popejoy is currently awaiting sentencing.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Fayetteville Division in cooperation with the Arkansas State Police Department and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Edward Chung of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner for the Western District of Arkansas.

In a disturbing display of hate, Popejoy and his co-conspirators showed no regard for human life, threatening and injuring five innocent men simply because of their ethnicity. The Grimy Times condemns such acts of hate and violence and will continue to report on such crimes.

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