PORT ANGELES — A Clallam Bay man pleaded guilty Thursday to committing a felony hate crime and misdemeanor assault by throwing eggs at Black Lives Matter demostrators in Port Angeles last year during nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd.
Jeffery Michael Dunn, 25, will be sentenced Aug. 19 in Clallam County Superior Court.
His standard sentence range is three to nine months on the felony hate crime offense and up to 364 days on each fourth-degree assault charge, Judge Lauren Erickson told him at Dunn’s change-of-plea hearing.
Although given the opportunity, Dunn did not make a statement in court Thursday, agreeing to have Erickson sentence him based on police reports and the probable cause statement.
The documents describe his actions June 13, 2020, at the Clallam County Courthouse when he repeatedly drove by protesters, hurling eggs, shouting racial and homophobic slurs and later bragged about it on Facebook.
Dunn, who had posted a Facebook photo of him throwing eggs and called himself “that egger guy,” had been charged with a special allegation of showing “an egregious lack of remorse” that was eliminated in the plea agreement.
Erickson can sentence Dunn outside the range agreed to in plea agreement reached by Dunn’s lawyer, William Payne of Sequim, and county Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Snipe.
All five victims are women. Four were hit with eggs; one was Port Angeles City Council member Navarra Carr, who was hit on the foot.
Dunn committed the hate crime against a 35-year-old Black woman who was at the protest with her family,
She said Dunn threw eggs in her direction, according to court records.
The woman and six members of her family, including her grandchildren, were holding signs and chanting “Black lives matter” when a man later identified as Dunn drove by yelling racial slurs and throwing eggs, she said in a statement to police.
“When he looked over and noticed we (my black family) was there he came back a second time and threw more eggs in our direction,” she said.
“He proceeded to try to get closer to us as he continued to throw eggs and shout racial slurs and obscenities.”
She said Dunn traumatized her and her grandchildren.
“Because of this, I am no longer able to bring them to any more peaceful protests because they have been terrorized [by] a young man they believe hates them even though they are children,” she said.
“And this hate is based on their color only, not because he knows them.”
She said she and her family do not feel safe in the community.
“This is a bad reflection on our community as a whole,” she said.
Dunn initially denied targeting a group or person at the protest, according to his interview with Port Angeles Police Officer Swift Sanchez following the incident. He admitted he shouted slurs.
“You just don’t sort of expect someone to throw eggs at you,” Carr said in an earlier interview with Peninsula Daily News.
“We’ve all seen protests we don’t agree with, but it really takes a lot of anger and hatred, I think, to actually throw things at people and try to cause them harm.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
