CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A judge says video captures a white felon committing a “vicious assault” on a black man, and the evidence indicates the beating was racially motivated.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles on Monday ordered 40-year-old Randy Joe Metcalf of Dubuque detained pending his trial on a hate crime charge. Scoles says Metcalf is “a danger to the community,” noting his eight prior assault convictions.
Metcalf was arrested last week in the January beating of 31-year-old Lamarr Sandridge at a Dubuque bar.
Scoles says surveillance video shows Metcalf “kicking and stomping” Sandridge’s head while Sandridge lays motionless on the floor. Witnesses say Metcalf made racial slurs and displayed a swastika tattoo, saying, “this is what I’m about.”
Scoles says those actions “support a finding” that Sandridge was attacked because of his race.
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