Center of attention
BY DUSTIN PANGONIS
STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, April 27, The trial of two Shenandoah area teens charged in the beating death of an illegal Mexican immigrant begins today, and allegations that the altercation was ethnically charged will again bring international attention to Schuylkill County.
The case, which will be argued before President Judge William E. Baldwin at the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville, has garnered coverage from major media outlets like CNN and People magazine.
Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, 25, of Shenandoah, died at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, on July 14, 2008, from injuries suffered in a beating two days earlier.
On July 25, 2008, charges were filed against Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17, of Shenandoah Heights, Derrick M. Donchak, 19, of Shenandoah, and Colin J. Walsh, 17, of Shenandoah Heights.
According to the criminal complaint, the three teenagers, along with three other juvenile friends, drank beer and malt liquor in the woods and attended a Polish American block party before encountering Ramirez and a 15-year-old female in Shenandoah at approximately 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. on July 14, 2008,
The six teenagers allegedly began hurling comments, including racial slurs, toward Ramirez, which led to verbal responses from Ramirez and eventually fighting between him and some of the teens.
During the fight, according to the criminal complaint, Walsh punched Ramirez in the face and caused him to fall and strike his head on the roadway. Piekarsky then allegedly kicked him in the side of his head.
Piekarsky was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, ethnic intimidation, criminal solicitation/hindering apprehension or prosecution and purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of liquor.
Donchak was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, criminal solicitation/hindering apprehension or prosecution, ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors, purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor and selling or furnishing alcohol to minors.
All Schuylkill County charges against Walsh, which included one count of criminal homicide, were formally dropped April 17 after Walsh pleaded guilty in federal court to charges relating to the incident.
The federal government first got involved in the case in late July 2008, when the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice announced they would investigate the circumstances surrounding Ramirez’s death. Federal involvement had been called for by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a national Hispanic civil rights organization.
National attention
Allegations that the fight was racially charged have garnered media coverage from international outlets, and spurred vigils, demonstrations and protests by national anti-illegal immigration groups and civil rights organizations alike.
In August 2008, during the preliminary hearing for the three teenagers, more than 40 people supporting immigration and civil rights rallied outside the Schuylkill County Courthouse. The demonstrators travelled from across the country, and included members of Somos Latinas 100 and Centro Sin Fronteras, both of Chicago, Ill., the New York-based May 1 Coalition, and Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants.
Also in August 2008, hundreds attended an anti-illegal immigration rally at Shenandoah’s Bicentennial Park, which was sponsored by Voice of the People USA.
Ramirez’s fiancee Crystal Dillman, along with four others, appeared at the rally holding a Mexican flag and shouted at the protestors. Dillman had previously appeared at other vigils and events in the community that summer.
To prevent jurors from seeing or hearing demonstrations, anyone protesting at the trial will be kept outside a quarter-mile radius from the courthouse.
Schuylkill County Sheriff Joseph G. Groody and all his deputies will be working throughout the trial for added security, and all attendees will have to pass through metal detectors at both the public entrance to the courthouse and at the entrance to the courtroom.
Various state newspapers have covered the case, and stories by the Associated Press and other wire services have been published by newspapers and television Web sites from coast to coast. Major television news networks have also covered the case, including a front-page 1,500-word on CNN.com and on the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” segment “The Other America.”
Dillman has said she was interviewed by major Spanish-language television networks, including Telemundo and Univision.
Testimony and other charges
At an Aug. 18, 2008 preliminary hearing for Piekarsky, Walsh and Donchak, Joseph Benjamin Lawson, 17, friend of the defendants and one of six teenagers involved in the incident, testified on the events of July 12, 2008.
According to Lawson, another teenager in the group, Brian Scully, first got into a fight with Ramirez after telling the teenage girl with Ramirez that it was late and she should go home.
Lawson testified that Ramirez made comments to Scully in Spanish in an aggressive tone. In response, Scully made racial comments — the only teenager in the group to make such comments, according to Lawson’s testimony — including, “This is Shenandoah. This is America. Go back to Mexico.”
Three fights broke out, the first between Scully and Ramirez, and the second between Donchak and Ramirez. The third and final altercation involved Walsh, Piekarsky, Donchak and Ramirez, according to testimony.
Lawson also said the boys met at Donchak’s house again on July 13 to figure out what to tell police, and settled on the story that “nobody kicked him, there were no racial slurs, there was no booze and Brian got hit first,” Lawson said.
He testified that this version of the story was not true.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys said Lawson’s testimony was unreliable because it came from a drunk teenager who was down the street from the fight. They also said that it was difficult to link each specific charge to each teen.
Other charges have followed the incident.
On Sept. 5, 2008, a fourth teenage boy was charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, hindering apprehension or prosecution, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of alcoholic beverages.
In juvenile court, he will not have the right to a jury trial, and instead face a hearing before a judge. The most severe punishment the teenager could receive is confinement in a juvenile detention facility until he turns 21 years old.
On Oct. 28, 2008, Joseph P. McTiernan, 23, of Frackville, pleaded guilty to supplying alcohol to Donchak before the fatal beating. Judge D. Michael Stine sentenced him to pay costs and a $1,000 fine on that charge, and to prison on other unrelated charges.
dpangonis@republicanherald.com, 570-628-6005
www.citizensvoice.com
