Sweeeet justice! Two white men are facing double trouble for breaking a Black man’s jaw in an unprovoked, racist attack. In addition to prison time, they were also ordered by a state judge to pay the victim over $1 million in damages.
Maurice Diggins and his nephew, Dusty Leo, both of Biddeford, Maine were charged with conspiracy and committing a hate crime after attacking Daimon McCollum in April 2018. McCollum was just stepping out to a 7-Eleven from celebrating a college scholarship for one of his three children when Thing 1 and Thing 2 scolded him with racial slurs, per an Associated Press report. Diggins, who donned a “White Pride World Wide” tattoo, taunted him and blocked the doorway of the store when suddenly, Ol’ Dusty launched a punch toward McCollum’s jaw.
When McCollum ran, he alleged the pair followed him home. Not too long after that, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb were arrested and handed federal charges, per The Portland Press Herald. McCollum testified at their trial in March 2020 that the incident left him with a broken jaw and his mouth was wired shut for a month.
Read more from The Portland Press Herald:
McCollum sued Leo and Diggins in civil court last fall seeking damages to cover medical costs from the attack. His attorney, Allyson Knowles, said McCollum required extensive surgery and that he is still emotionally distressed.
In handwritten answers to the complaint last year, Diggins and Leo opposed the charges and requested that the court wait for them to either find attorneys or be released before scheduling pretrial discovery deadlines. After a one-hour hearing on Thursday, Mulhern ordered them to pay $700,000 in punitive damages and $500,000 in compensatory damages. Diggins and Leo were not at the hearing.
Knowles acknowledged that Diggins and Leo likely don’t have $1.2 million, but that there are civil procedures for determining what assets defendants have, and what can be seized to make up for their payments.
The pair were handed their federal prison sentences in 2020. At the moment, Diggins is serving a 10-year sentence. However, his sidekick who threw the suckerpunch at McCollum only received three years in federal prison and is expected to be released ahead of Thanksgiving.