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Hate crime suspect gets 1 year in jail |
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Tuesday, 25 November 2008 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
11-25-2008 Big Pine tribal members and local law enforcement are breathing a sigh of relief after sentencing in the first hate crime case that District Attorney Art Maillet has filed in his seven years as the county’s top prosecutor.
Big Pine resident Ryan Lee Jones, 21, was sentenced to one year in Inyo County Jail after pleading guilty to felony vandalism and a violation of civil rights.
“The civil rights violation is commonly known as a hate crime based on a person’s race or ethnicity,” Maillet said.
With the gravity of the crime in mind, the 365-day sentence, Maillet said, “is solid,” meaning that Jones will not get out of jail early for good behavior, work release or any other reason until the sentence is fulfilled.
Jones was arrested early June 16 for allegedly spray painting racist symbols on a number of buildings in Big Pine, including two homes of Big Pine Paiute Tribe members, Big Pine School and Eureka Dunes High School.
According to records from the Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s offices, Jones and an accomplice, who is under the age of 18, vandalized the properties the night of June 15.
Residents in Big Pine woke up to derogatory symbols strewn about the community, on streets, playgrounds, homes and schools.
The hate crime in this case involved spray painting Nazi symbols on school property, Big Pine Paiute Tribal property and individual tribal members’ property. The Nazi symbols included swastikas, “SS” lightning bolts, commonly associated with the Nazi party, and the letters “KKK” (Ku Klux Klan), which were painted on playground equipment.
“All these symbols historically represent attempts to intimidate individuals based on their race or ethnicity and to interfere with the free exercise or enjoyment of any right secured by the Constitution of the United States,” Maillet said.
Those effects were apparent throughout the community of Big Pine in the days following the vandalism and Jones’ arrest.
According to a press release from the District Attorney’s office, an elderly resident of the Big Pine Paiute Reservation who was a victim of the vandalism said that “this act of racial violence has opened old wounds and brought up past prejudices within her community on the reservation.”
As a result, Maillet said, “she is sometimes fearful.” The woman further said she just “wants this to be over and to do what we can do to repair what can be done socially, because a lot of people are really upset.”
Though Maillet referred to the incident as “silly Aryan hate,” he is not taking the matter lightly.
“We will prosecute these people,” he said. “We can’t tolerate that kind of stuff, it’s just way out there. This case has upset a lot of people in the community who remember the old prejudices.”
Maillet noted, however, that “we’re fortunate that we don’t have a lot of this in our community.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 December 2008 )
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