Two men facing hate crime charges for allegedly attacking a black man in Biddeford last April have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with another racially motivated attack in Portland on the same day.
Maurice Diggins, 34, and Dusty Leo, 28, both of Biddeford, allegedly assaulted a black man, breaking his jaw, outside an Old Port bar shortly after midnight last April 15, then drove to a Biddeford convenience store and assaulted another black man, also breaking his jaw. They are accused of shouting racial epithets in both locations before the alleged assaults.
Maurice Diggins, left, and Dusty Leo (York County Jail photos)
The two men, who are white, already faced charges in both state and federal courts in connection with the alleged assault in Biddeford. A new federal indictment, handed down March 1, adds details and charges related to the Portland assault.
Diggins and Leo each face up to five years on a count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes and up to 10 years each on two counts of committing hate crimes, along with fines of up to $250,000 on each of the counts. The two also face state assault charges. In addition, the Maine Attorney General’s Office filed a civil complaint related to the Biddeford incident and the court issued a civil order against the men last June.
Diggins appeared in court Monday and pleaded not guilty to the new criminal charges. Leo is scheduled for an initial appearance on the new indictment next Monday.
Attorneys for both men have said they denied the initial charges and would fight them in court. The federal trial has been scheduled for May.
According to the new indictment, Diggins and Leo approached three black men outside a bar in Portland’s Old Port. Portland police said the incident took place on Wharf Street shortly after midnight on April 15, 2018.
Without being provoked, the indictment said, Diggins and Leo called the men a racial epithet and hit one of the men and broke his jaw. They then struck the other two and tried to follow the man whose jaw they broke when he ran from the scene.
Sometime later that same night, the indictment said, they pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot in Biddeford, where they saw another black man and said, “who you eyeballing, (racial epithet)?” Diggins stopped the truck, approached the black man and repeated the comment, the indictment alleges. Then, the indictment said, Diggins got between the door to the store and the victim and Leo walked up behind the black man and hit him, breaking his jaw.
The alleged victims have not been identified in either case.
Portland police said they interviewed Leo after the alleged assault in the Old Port, but no arrests were made at the time, said Lt. Robert Martin, a department spokesman.
Neither Diggins nor Leo showed up to answer the civil rights complaint and a default judgment ordered them to stay away from the victim in the Biddeford assault, bars them from committing other hate crimes and warns them against contacting witnesses. If they violate the judgment, they could face up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
Diggins has been held since the charges were filed last spring, said his lawyer, Randall Bates. That’s because of a probation violation, Bates said.
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