WASHINGTON STATE RESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO ETHNICALLY MOTIVATED ATTACKS AGAINST ISLAMIC IDRISS MOSQUE

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. and United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay announced today that Patrick Michael Cunningham pled guilty to the September 13, 2001 attack of an Islamic Idriss Mosque in Seattle, Washington and targeting Muslim and Arab-Americans for retaliatory violence following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"As this successful prosecution makes clear, acts of violence and vigilantism targeted at individuals because of their race, religion, or national origin will not be permitted in the United States – they will be aggressively investigated, swiftly prosecuted and firmly punished," said Boyd. "The Department of Justice is committed to fighting hate and intolerance, as they tear at the very fabric of our great nation, a fabric that is strengthened by its diversity of races, religions and national origins."

Cunningham, a 53-year-old Snohomish, Washington resident, pled guilty to two felony counts for attempting to obstruct worshipers in exercising their religious beliefs at the Islamic Idriss Mosque in Seattle, Washington on September 13, 2001. Cunningham drove 25 miles from his home to the Mosque and attempted to set fire to two vehicles in the parking lot of the Mosque by dousing the vehicles with gasoline and attempted to ignite the vehicles in an effort to destroy the Mosque and interfere with the worshipers as they worshiped inside. Cunningham arrived at the Mosque armed with a loaded pistol, and upon being discovered in the midst of his scheme, he pulled out the pistol and shot at the worshipers, who were unharmed.

In documents filed today in United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Cunningham agreed to plead guilty to one count of Attempted Obstruction of Free Exercise of Religion and one count of use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. In count one, Cunningham faces a maximum sentence of twenty years and a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. In the second count, Cunningham faces a mandatory minimum period of five years, up to a maximum of imprisonment for life, to run consecutively to any other sentence, and a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

As part of the plea agreement, Cunningham agreed to draft a written apology to the victims and the worshipers of the Idriss Mosque, as well as present an oral apology to the victims and worshipers at the time of sentencing.

This case is one of several federal prosecutions initiated nationwide since the events of September 11 involving threats or acts of violence against persons who are, or were perceived to be, Arab or Muslim. The Department of Justice also has been coordinating with state and local authorities, who have initiated over 70 prosecutions of such incidents under state criminal statutes.

In a successful federal criminal civil rights prosecution in Salt Lake City, James Herrick was sentenced to 51 months incarceration after pleading guilty on January 7, 2002, to setting fire to a Pakistani restaurant in Salt Lake City on September 13, 2001. Also, in Madison, Wisconsin, Wesley Fritts is pending sentencing after pleading guilty for mailing an anthrax hoax letter to an Arab American restaurant. He will be sentenced May 13, 2002.

There also have been guilty pleas in three federal cases where threatening telephone calls were made to persons because of their perceived nationality. Thomas Iverson pled guilty for telephoning a bomb threat on September 29, 2001, against a Jordanian American liquor store in Beloit, Wisconsin. In Hewitt, Texas, Joe Luis Montez pled guilty to placing threatening telephone calls to Sikhs employed at a truck stop on September 17, 2001. And, Justin Scott-Priestly Bolen pled guilty on February 6, 2002, for interfering with the housing rights of a Pakistani-American family in Fenton, Michigan, by leaving a threatening message on its answering machine on October 10, 2001.

Other federal charges are pending against five defendants in three other cases brought in the aftermath of September 11, alleging that the victims were targeted because of their perceived race, nationality, or religion. In Knoxville, Tennessee, Jason and Travis Kitts were charged with assaulting the Indian-American resident managers of a motel on September 24, 2001. Irving David Rubin and Earl Leslie Krugel, members of the Jewish Defense League, have been indicted in Los Angeles for conspiracy to bomb a mosque and the California office of United States Congressman Darrell Issa. Finally, Charles D. Franklin was indicted on April 17, 2002, for crashing a pick-up truck into a Tallahassee, Florida mosque.

The case against Cunningham was jointly investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Seattle Police Department. The case is being jointly prosecuted by Malachi B. Jones from the Criminal Section of Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and Assistant United States Attorney Donald M. Currie from the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.

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