Trio touted racial hate, jury is told

A federal prosecutor told a jury Tuesday that three men wanted to wage a campaign of terror and hate against non-whites in Salt Lake City when they dragged the manager of a local bar outside and beat him on New Year's Eve in 2002.

However, defense attorneys for Shaun Walker, Travis Massey and Eric Egbert, who are standing trial on charges of hate crimes and civil rights violations, said it was the government's key witness who was to blame for inciting the beating of the man, a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage, as well as the beating of a Native American man in 2003.

In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Esqueda told the jury the three men wanted to send a message to the Salt Lake City communi- ty, "that it only belongs to the white people."

Esqueda said Walker, Massey and Egbert met with a group of friends at the O'Shucks bar on New Year's Eve in 2002. Many of the group were members of the white-supremacist organization National Alliance. At the time, Walker was the head of the group's Utah chapter.

According to the National Alliance's Web site, Walker ultimately rose in ranks to become the organization's national chairman.

The prosecution claims the fight started when a female and her boyfriend at the bar raised their glasses to toast the new year. Esqueda said the boyfriend toasted his Irish heritage, drawing the attention of one of Walker's group. The woman then said she was a "Polish Jew" and toasted to her heritage, drawing taunts and racist comments from the National Alliance group, the prosecutor said.

Ultimately, bar manager James Ballesteros intervened and told the group to not pass out National Alliance fliers to bar patrons. Esqueda said Ballesteros was put into a headlock and dragged outside the bar where he was kicked and punched while being called racial slurs by Walker, Massey, Egbert and Keith Wayne Cotter, one of the government's key witnesses in the case. Other National Alliance members then blocked the bar's door to prevent other bar staff from running to the victim's aid as the assault took place.

"We are the superior race," Esqueda said one of the men said to the victim.

Ballesteros suffered some bruises, no broken bones, but experienced severe emotional trauma from the incident, the prosecutor said.