Maine Men Ordered to Pay $1.25 Million for Racially Motivated Attack

The victim, Daimon McCollum, suffered a broken jaw and emotional distress from the 2018 attack, leading to extensive surgery and a civil lawsuit.

Maurice Diggins and Dusty Leo, both white men from Biddeford, Maine, have been ordered by a state judge to pay $1.25 million in damages for a racially motivated attack on a Black man, Daimon McCollum, in April 2018.
The attack occurred when McCollum was stepping out to a convenience store after celebrating a college scholarship for one of his three children. Diggins and Leo taunted McCollum with racial slurs and Leo punched him in the jaw, breaking it.
McCollum sued Diggins and Leo in civil court seeking damages to cover medical costs from the attack. His attorney, Allyson Knowles, said McCollum required extensive surgery and that he is still emotionally distressed.
The judge ordered Diggins and Leo to pay $750,000 in punitive damages and $500,000 in compensatory damages. However, it is acknowledged that Diggins and Leo likely don’t have $1.2 million, but there are civil procedures for determining what assets defendants have, and what can be seized to make up for their payments.
Diggins is currently serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for committing a hate crime and conspiracy. Leo, who pleaded guilty and received a three-year sentence, is currently residing in a halfway house and is due to be released from federal custody next week.