Jury selection for two Biddeford men charged with hates crimes is scheduled to begin at U.S. District Court on March 4, but the attorney for one of the defendants is asking that the trial be continued until May.

Maurice Diggins, 34, and Dusty Leo, 28, are accused of beating an African-American man outside a Biddeford convenience store last April. Both men have been charged with committing a hate crime and conspiracy to commit a hate crime.

Attorney Amy Fairfield, in a motion to the court, asked that the case be continued until May because she is awaiting additional information during the discovery process and because federal prosecutors may file additional charges against her client, Dusty Leo.

“I don’t know if there are additional charges,” said Fairfield on Tuesday. “There is more information to come to us. There could be.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila W. Sawyer consented to the proposed postponement, Fairfield said.

According to the federal complaint, Diggins drove a pickup truck into the parking lot of a convenience store and shouted at the victim, who was walking toward the store’s entrance. The complaint alleges Diggins shouted “Who you eyeballing, (racial slur),” and repeated the slur after exiting the vehicle. Then he allegedly circled the victim, putting himself between the victim and the door of the store. Leo, the complaint alleged, then walked up behind the victim and struck him in the head.

The victim, referred to only as D.M., staggered backward and, the court documents say, Diggins approached him, causing him to fall. As the victim got to his feet and ran away, Leo allegedly followed him across the parking lot, and he and Diggins continued to refer to the man using racial slurs.

According to a separate civil rights complaint filed by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the man’s jaw was broken in the encounter. That complaint also noted the victim had never met Diggins and Leo.

Diggins and Leo each face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison on the first count, up to five years on the second count and three years supervised release on each count.

Diggins is held in federal custody pending trial; Leo was ordered released in September with a number of conditions, including that he submit to location monitoring, get substance abuse counseling, have no contact with the victim, not possess a firearm and not consume alcohol or drugs.

Leo has a criminal record that includes convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, trafficking in dangerous knives and two OUIs, according to the State Bureau of Identification. Diggins has an extensive criminal history that began in 2003 and includes multiple convictions for theft and burglary, and has been in and out of state prison, according to the State Bureau of Identification.

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