Four men have been indicted for federal hate crimes and making false statements in connection to a 2018 bar fight in Lynnwood where a Black man was attacked.
Jason Desimas, 44, of Tacoma; Jason Stanley, 43, of Boise; Randy Smith, 38 of Eugene, Oregon; and Daniel Delbert Dorson, 24, of Corvallis, Oregon were charged for allegedly aiding and abetting one another as they punched and kicked a Black man and made derogatory comments against him at the Rec Room Tavern on Dec. 8, 2018.
The men were also charged with assaulting two other men.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the men also made false statements to the FBI during the investigation. Desimas allegedly told investigators nobody made racial slurs during the attack. Stanley allegedly claimed he wasn’t in Washington during the incident. Smith allegedly lied to investigators about how he injured himself. And Dorson falsely claimed he had not planned to attend a white supremacist “Martyr’s Day” observance, according to prosecutors.
"Martyr's Day" marks the day Robert Jay Mathews was killed in a shootout with FBI agents on Whidbey Island in 1984. Matthews led the domestic terror group The Order in the mid-1980s.
In 2018, local authorities said they believed suspects in the attack were in the area to participate in the event.
Smith and Stanley are in Oregon and Idaho custody, respectively, on unrelated charges. They will be arraigned in western Washington.
The suspects could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the hate crime charges and up to five years if convicted of making false statements.
