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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Cops Face Prison Time for Hate Crime Cover-Up

(CN) - Two Pennsylvania police officials were convicted Friday of covering up a hate crime - the beating death of a Mexican immigrant by white high school football players.

The young men who beat Luis Ramirez to death in July 2008 skated through state charges in a jury trial decided by a reportedly all-white jury, but two of the four assailants were convicted on federal hate crime charges, which could carry a life sentence, in October 2010.

Matthew Nestor, who was chief of the Shenandoah, Pa., police department at the time of the murder, was convicted Friday of filing a false report to mislead the investigation, Justice Department officials say.

Former police Lt. William Moyer was convicted of lying to the FBI after he misreported the statements of witnesses to the crime.

Nestor faces a 20-year sentence, while Moyer faces five. The jury acquitted a former police officer, reportedly dating the mother of one of the assailants, who had been charged with obstructing justice.

The two attackers convicted of hate crimes, Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky, are scheduled to be sentenced in February, after the original sentencing date was pushed back in anticipation of today's verdict.

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