I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Three Farmington men who used a hot wire hanger to brand a swastika into the arm of a disabled Navajo man have been indicted on federal hate crimes charges. The indictment provides details about the assault that were not described to the public when the assault was first reported. In addition to the swastika branded on his arm, the defendants shaved a swastika into the man’s hair and wrote within the lines of that swastika “KKK” and “White Power.”
Paul Beebe, 27, William Hatch, 29, and Jesse Sanford, 25, all of Farmington, N.M., were indicted by a federal grand jury in Albuquerque for their assault on the 22-year old Navajo man, who is cognitively impaired. They are charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was enacted in October 2009.
In addition to the swastikas, the indictment alleges that the men used a marker to draw other derogatory symbols and language on the man’s back, while telling him they were drawing feathers and “native pride.” They also took advantage of the victim’s developmental disability to induce him to make a cell phone video in which he purportedly consents to the branding.
This case is being investigated by the Albuquerque Division of the Federal Bureau Investigation in cooperation with the Farmington Police Department and the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberto D. Ortega for the District of New Mexico and Special Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Fara Gold of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
