TWO DEFENDANTS SENTENCED ON FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS HATE CRIME CHARGES
DAVENPORT- On September 15, 2009, Timothy Shane Ketner and Pistol Wolf Holliday, both from Wichita, Kansas area, were sentenced to terms in prison by United States District Court Judge John A. Jarvey, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker. Ketner was sentenced to 36 months in prison. Holliday was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Both pled guilty to Interference with Federal Protected Activities.
On December 13, 2007, two African American males went to the Canterbury Pub in the Econolodge in Muscatine. One of the victims sat at the bar and another was talking on a phone in the pool area. Jeffery Lee made racially offensive statements in reference to both subjects being allowed inside the bar. Lee went to the bar and sat down next to one of the victims. Pistol Holliday, Timothy Ketner, and Wendie Groen joined Lee at the bar. While sitting next to the first victim, Lee began physically attacking the victim knocking him off his stool. All four defendants yelled racially derogatory statements as Lee continued to assault the victim. An employee and another patron intervened, stopped the first fight and got things calmed down.
At that time, Groen made a racial reference and verbally encouraged the others to assault a second African American male who was back near some pool tables. Neither victim knew each other. All Lee, Ketner, Holliday and Groen approached and began physically beating the second victim. The second victim attempted to escape up some stairs, Lee followed him and continued to assault him and make racially derogatory statements. Again, a bar employee and a patron intervened to break up the assault. Both attacks were unprovoked and neither victim was able to defend themselves. Both victims received bodily injuries.
A few days after the fight, Lee, Ketner and Groen confronted a bar employee who had witnessed the assault and attempted to persuade the employee to change a statement made to the police. The employee refused.
The two other co-defendants, Jeffery Lee and Wendie Groen were previously sentenced on July 19, 2009. Lee was sentenced to 45 months in prison. Groen was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
This case was prosecuted in the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Iowa. This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Muscatine Police Department, and the Muscatine County Attorney’s Office.