A North Carolina man has been found guilty of committing hate crimes against two men based on their race.
On Jan. 11, a federal jury reached a guilty verdict after finding that the defendant deliberately utilized KKK and Nazi memorabilia and other items to engage in intimidation by threatening the two victims with firearms, a violation of their civil rights.
The Justice Department charged Marian Hudak, 52, with deliberately causing harm, intimidating, or interfering with an individual identified as J.S., a Black man, based on his race and color. These actions occurred while J.S. was utilizing a public facility on Oct. 13, 2022.
According to court documents, Hudak started harassing J.S. while the Greensboro native was driving in Concord, N.C., and blasted the Black man with racial slurs and called out to him, “Come here, boy.”
In addition to the verbal harassment, Hudak swerved into the lane the Black man was driving in, got out of his vehicle, and then repeatedly punched the victim’s driver’s side window. When the man tried to escape, Hudak chased him to his home, where he compounded the racial slurs and aggressive language by threatening to shoot and kill him.
He was also charged and convicted of willfully injuring, intimidating, or interfering with a Hispanic man named J.D. Prosecutors were able to prove that Hudak targeted his neighbor J.D. because of his race and national origin, violating his right to live wherever he wanted by intimidating.
On Nov. 27, 2021, Hudak attacked his J.D. outside of his home, blanketing him with racial epithets and insults before punching and tackling him down.
Reports state that the Hispanic man suffered bodily injury.
During the trial, witnesses testified that the incident involving J.D. was not the first time Hudak used anti-Hispanic comments in public. In fact, the prosecutor was able to substantiate his bigotry by sharing items such as a KKK flag, a racist publication, and Nazi memorabilia discovered in his residence.
Over the last few years, politicians and law enforcement agents in the Greensboro area have been cracking down on hate speech and related crimes. In 2020, the Greensboro City Council even took steps to apologize for racial terrorism that happened 44 years ago by voting to issue a formal apology for the massacre that left five dead at the hands of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan during a “Death to Klan Rally” on Nov. 3, 1979, organized by Communist Workers Party activists.
According to a 2021 study conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, across all 50 states, there are 733 active hate groups in the nation. North Carolina, particularly in areas like Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem, ranks as number 19 on the 20 states with the most hate groups.
The Justice Department has taken strides under Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to fight against those domestic terrorist groups.
“It’s one thing to use racial slurs and harbor the KKK’s flag, but carrying out acts of violence fueled by naked racial animus and hatred violates the law and core principles of our democracy. The defendant was held accountable for his violent and unlawful attacks on Black and Hispanic members of his community,” said Clarke, according to a Department of Justice press release.
“The Justice Department will vigorously investigate and prosecute violence targeting people because of their race or national origin. All community members should be able to live in and move about their neighborhoods without fear of attack because of how they look or where they are from,” Clarke added.
Hudak’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for May 1.
