Grand jury indicts four men with neo-Nazi ties for hate crimes, false statements over 2018 Lynnwood bar assault
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has indicted four self-described neo-Nazi skinheads from Idaho, Oregon and Washington for hate crimes and making false statements in the beating of a Black man at a Lynnwood bar during a 2018 celebration of “Martyrs Day,” the anniversary of the death of white supremacist Robert Jay Mathews.
The indictment by a grand jury in Seattle names Jason Desimas, 44, of Tacoma; Jason Stanley, 43, of Boise; Randy Smith, 38, of Eugene, Ore., and Daniel Delbert Dorson, 24, of Corvallis, Ore. It charges the men with three counts of federal hate crime and four counts of making false statements to FBI agents.
The indictment stems from an investigation by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI of the Dec. 8, 2018, beating at The Rec Room Bar & Grill, where a Black disc jockey was assaulted by several men when he refused to change the music.
The men allegedly uttered racial slurs and kicked and beat the DJ. Eight men were arrested, including at least one man identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a member and founder of a racist group and record label.
The indictment accuses the men of making “racially derogatory comments” while assaulting the man, who is identified in the indictment by the initials “T.S.” The men “willfully caused bodily injury” to the disc jockey and two other men involved in the fight “and did so because of T.S.’s actual and perceived race.”
The date of the assault was significant in that several members of the group had been at an annual “Martyrs Day” anniversary on Whidbey Island, commemorating the 1984 death of Matthews during a shootout with the FBI.
Members of the group were responsible for the murder of Denver radio talk host Alan Berg in 1984.
The false statement counts stem from denials by Desmias to the FBI that he and others used racist language during the assault. The indictment also claims Stanley lied about being present at the bar; that Smith lied about how he had bloodied his knuckles; and that Dorson lied about attending the “Martyrs Day” celebration on Whidbey earlier and said “he had not owned a jacket associated with white supremacy hate groups,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.