This year, the state attorney general’s office has issued Injunctions in nine hate crime cases against the following 10 people, according to complaints provided by Leanne Robbin, the assistant attorney general who handles civil rights cases:
— John A. Siciliani, 30, of Bridgton on June 1 yelled racial epithets and threatened a 19-year-old African-American from Auburn and a 16-year-old African-American from Naples with a 2-by-4 and a BB gun. Siciliani was arrested the next day.
— William J. Brown, 32, of Livermore on June 1 knocked down one cross and broke another one in half. The crosses had been placed in a field across the street from Augusta Family Planning by anti-abortion protesters. Brown told police two weeks later that he intentionally broke the cross because he disagreed with the protesters’ opposition to services provided by the clinic.
— Craig Lee, 73, of Westbrook in June and July made sexist and threatening statements to a 20-year-old native of Ethiopia, when she was working as a cashier at a Home Depot store in Portland and wearing a headscarf. The victim was so afraid Lee would return to the store that she quit her job.
— James A. Day Jr., 22, of Lamoine on July 4 accosted two 20-year-old Hispanic men playing soccer on the village green in Bar Harbor. Day told them he did not want them there and threatened to call the “Aryan Brotherhood” and Hell’s Angels to take care of them. When one of the victims tried to call police on his cell phone, Day threatened the men with a knife and chased them. He only stopped when a police cruiser drove by the scene.
— Carl J. Vincent, 44, of Portland on July 10 shouted racial epithets at a 54-year-old Muslim man born in Somalia and his two children as they drove to their mosque. Vincent followed them. They were so concerned for their safety that they called 911, returned home and waited for police. As a result of the incident, the victims stopped wearing traditional Muslim attire except when attending services at their mosque.
— Sarah T. Huntington, 27, of Sabattus on Aug. 12 yelled racial epithets at a 24-year-old African-American woman outside a Lewiston market. Huntington also threatened the woman with a knife, threw two full cans of a Monster energy drink at the victim and kicked a trash can at her. The defendant called police on her cell phone and continued to threaten the victim while speaking with a dispatcher. What Huntington said was not included in the complaint.
— Thomas Corbin, 29, of Portland on Aug. 29 yelled racial epithets at a 51-year-old African-American man who lives in Portland and was walking home. Corbin also threatened the victim with a knife, shouting “white power” and “white supremacy.” The victim called Portland police.
— Elijah A. Crockett, 33, of Augusta and Heatherly L. Wing, 37, of Gardiner on Sept. 5 shouted from the car in which they were passengers racial epithets at a 47-year-old man of Iraqi origin, his relatives and neighbors as they sat outside an Augusta store. The third time the car went by the store, the driver stopped, Crockett got out and assaulted the Iraqi man. When he tried to defend himself, Wing attacked the victim and bit him on the wrist. Crockett told Augusta police that he did not like Middle Eastern people and referred to them as “towel heads.”
— Edward Suckiel, 50, of Poland about 4 p.m. Sept. 7 shouted racial epithets at a 25-year-old native of Somalia while he was in the men’s room on the third floor of the Glickman Family Library at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Suckiel continued to make derogatory comments about immigrants for five to 10 minutes before leaving. When the defendant was confronted by University police officers, he fled but was later apprehended.