Hate Crime Charge for Man Accused in Texas Mosque Fire - New York Times

A Texas man was indicted on federal hate crime charges on Thursday in connection with an act of arson that destroyed a mosque and Islamic community center in January.

The man, Marq Vincent Perez, was charged with hate crime damage to a religious property, use of fire to commit a federal felony and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to a statement from the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of Texas.

The mosque, the Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Tex., was gutted by flames on Jan. 28. Investigators ruled in February that the fire had been deliberately set but initially said no evidence had been found to indicate that it was a hate crime. No injuries were reported in connection with the blaze.

Mr. Perez, 25, was initially indicted in March on a charge of possession of an unregistered destructive device that prosecutors accused him of using to try to blow up a car on Jan. 15. His lawyer, Mark A. Di Carlo, described that device on Thursday as a firework.

Prosecutors said on Thursday that the court heard evidence at Mr. Perez’s detention hearing in March that linked him to two burglaries at the mosque in late January as well as the fire, which happened on the night of the second burglary.

Angela Dodge, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said Mr. Perez was not charged with burglary on Thursday because burglary is not a federal offense.

Prosecutors did not say how the mosque was set on fire and did not offer specifics on the motive. Abe Martinez, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said at a news conference on Thursday that the “destructive device” charge against Mr. Perez related to the attempt to blow up the car.

If convicted, Mr. Perez would face up to 20 years in prison for the hate crime charge and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for the arson charge, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Mr. Di Carlo was irate during a phone interview on Thursday. He said he had not been informed of the new indictments facing his client until he was asked for comment on Thursday by a reporter from a local newspaper, The Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Mr. Perez will plead not guilty to the new charges, Mr. Di Carlo said. He also criticized prosecutors for referring to diversity at the news conference on Thursday, where Mr. Martinez described the Southern District of Texas as “a very large, very diverse district” with a sizable Muslim population.

“We believe this case is being handled like a political trial not a criminal trial,” he said. “At the beginning of the press conference today, they were talking about diversity and so on, but these are criminal allegations.”

Mr. Di Carlo also contested the basic premise of the hate crime charge. “This was not a mosque, this was an Islamic learning center and there was a mosque therein,” he said.

The mosque did not respond to a call seeking comment on Thursday afternoon. After the fire was ruled arson in February, the mosque administrators said in a public statement that they were “saddened and alarmed by the outcome of the investigation.”

Muslim groups in Texas were pleased with the indictment and cautioned mosques and other Islamic institutions to take extra security measures, particularly as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan draws to a close this weekend.

“We welcome the hate crime charge brought against the alleged arsonist and hope it sends a strong message to anyone contemplating attacking a house of worship,” said Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

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