A man is accused of threatening to kill a Black employee at a Social Security office in Washington because of his race, federal prosecutors said.
Now Steven L. Veres, 41, of Thurston County, is charged with a hate crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Veres went with a friend on Feb. 16 to get a replacement Social Security card from the Social Security office in Olympia, prosecutors said. There, the employee informed him of the proper documents he needed for a new card, prosecutors said.
Veres returned to the office later that day with documents and became enraged with the employee when he told Veres the paperwork was not sufficient for a replacement Social Security card, prosecutors said.
He’s accused of hurling racial slurs at the worker and threatening to “assault and murder him,” according to prosecutors and a superseding indictment.
On Oct. 16, Veres appeared in federal court in Tacoma and was arraigned on charges of influencing a federal official by threat and interference with federally protected activities, the attorney’s office announced in a news release that day.
McClatchy News contacted federal public defenders representing Veres for comment on Oct. 17 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The charge of influencing a federal official by threat carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, according to the release.
If Veres is convicted of that charge, he could also face a $250,000 fine, the release said.
The charge of interference with a federally protected activity carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison, prosecutors said.
It falls under a federal hate crime law that “makes it a crime to use or threaten to use force to willfully interfere with a person’s participation in a federally protected activity because of race, color, religion, or national origin.”
Veres is due back in court on Nov. 28 for a jury trial, court records show.
