A Maine judge on Thursday ordered two white men convicted of assaults against Black men in 2018 to pay $1.2 million to one of two victims, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Maurice Diggins and his nephew Dusty Leo were found guilty in 2020 of two separate assaults against Black men in April 2018. Leo pleaded guilty, but Diggins went to trial and was found guilty by an all-white jury for the assaults and one count of conspiracy under a federal hate crimes act, in the first such case in Maine.
One of the victims, Daimon McCollum, whom Diggins and Leo assaulted outside a 7-Eleven in Biddeford, brought the civil suit against his attackers last fall to recoup medical bills.
The Press Herald reported that the hearing on Thursday lasted one hour, after which Superior Court Justice Richard Mulhern ordered Diggins and Leo, who were not present, to pay $700,000 in punitive damages and $500,000 in compensatory damages.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated when the hearing was held.