MARQUETTE, Michigan – A 23-year-old man with ties to a white supremacist group was convicted of defacing a Jewish synagogue in Hancock, Michigan with Neo-Nazi symbols, announced Mark Totten, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.
A federal jury convicted Nathan Weeden, of Houghton, on Thursday for conspiring with others to deface Temple Jacob with swastikas and symbols associated with The Base, a multi-state, white supremacist group.
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“Today’s swift conviction sends a strong message that hate will not be tolerated in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,” Totten said. “No one should be the target of hate because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or any other status. When hateful words become hateful acts, my office will use every tool we have to protect the public and secure justice.”
What happened
In September 2019, Weeden, Richard Tobin, and Yousef Barasneh, all members of The Base, used an encrypted messaging platform to discuss vandalizing property associated with African Americans and Jewish Americans, according to prosecutors.
Weeden and his co-conspirators dubbed their plan, “Operation Kristallnacht,” which in German means “Night of Broken Glass.”
Prosecutors said the term referenced events that took place on Nov. 9-10, 1938, in which Nazis murdered Jews and burned and destroyed their homes, synagogues, schools, and places of business.
Weeden carried out the plan on Sept. 21, 2019, when he spray-painted swastikas and symbols associated with The Base on the outside walls of Temple Jacob.
On June 27, a grand jury issued a two-count indictment against Weeden. The indictment was unsealed on June 29 after the suspect was arrested by the FBI.
The jury convicted Weeden of two counts. The first count is Conspiracy Against Rights, a civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the exercise of their rights.
The second count is for Damage to Religious Property, also a civil rights statute that makes it a crime to intentionally deface, damage, or destroy religious property because of the race or ethnic characteristics of individuals associated with that religious property.
Weeden’s co-conspirators, Tobin, and Barasneh, were previously convicted of federal crimes in this case.