The first report of anyone distributing white supremacist literature in Hornell, NY, came to police early Sunday.
A worshiper who arrived for services at Rehoboth Deliverance Ministries — a mostly black church in the mostly white town of about 8,500 about an hour south of Rochester — found a leaflet on the door, police chief TJ Murray said in an interview on Tuesday. . It had the words “Aryan National Army” on it and an image of a skull in a swastika, he said.
By the time the weekend was over, Chief Murray said, officers had found similar material all over town, mostly in plastic bags that also contained rocks (presumably to keep them from blowing away). The tracts were in doorways, driveways, and a park; on the porches of houses; and attached to the front of the Temple Beth-El synagogue.
Before daybreak on Monday, the chief said, officers encountered two men handing out the literature. After police searched their home, the men, Dylan Henry, 30, and Ryan Mulhollen, 27, and a woman, Aubrey Dragonetti, 31, were arrested and charged on 115 counts each — one for each leaflet — of a felony hate crime. .
Hornell Mayor John Buckley described covering the city in racist, anti-Semitic literature as “shocking” and an aberration in what he and Chief Murray, a 40-year veteran of the Hornell Police Department, both have “close-knit community”. called. †
“These are three misguided individuals who have hatred in their hearts,” said Mr Buckley. “This is something that Hornell does not reflect.”
The city, a former railroad junction in Steuben County, which census data shows is 93 percent white, is in New York’s southern Tier region. Racial attitudes in the area came under scrutiny after a racism-driven gunman killed 10 black people in a Buffalo supermarket in May. The man charged in the massacre is from Conklin, NY, a village in the south of the city, two hours east of Hornell.
Sandy Messing, 75, the synagogue’s secretary, said he was stunned that the temple had been targeted. Such an act was totally contrary to her experience in the area, she said.
“In my years there, nothing like this has ever happened,” says Ms. Messing, who grew up in Hornell, spent much of her working life in Rochester, and moved back to nearby Arkport after retirement. “No racial issues. No prejudice whatsoever.”
Built in 1946, Temple Beth-El is listed on the state and national registries of Historic Places as emblematic of the Jewish communities that took root in the small towns of upstate New York many years ago.
Even at its peak decades ago, only 34 families came to worship regularly, said Jane Jamison, Mrs. Messing’s predecessor as secretary. Today the congregation has shrunk to four families, and the synagogue opens only during High Holy Days and on certain other special occasions.
Ms Jamison, 91, said she too was stunned that people had littered Hornell with anti-Semitic literature. She moved to the area to attend Alfred University after growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, then settled in Hornell, drawn to its small-town friendly atmosphere and “lovely people.”
“It was comfortable,” said Ms. Jamison, who taught at Hornell high school for 30 years before retiring.
When searching the residence of Mr Henry, Mr Mulhollen and Ms Dragonetti, Chief Murray said, officers found two computers and several cell phones that the three had used to communicate with others about the distribution of the material.
Investigations into the nature of those communications and into the Aryan National Army continued, Chief Murray said. Ms. Dragonetti, he said, had been charged after officers determined she had prepared the bags the men had left in the city.
The charge the three face, first-degree aggravated harassment, makes it a crime to “harass, annoy, threaten or alarm another” because of their “race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation.” The statue specifically cites the use of a swastika or noose in such harassment.
Mr Mulhollen and Mr Henry served time in state prison – Mr Mulhollen for drug possession and Mr Henry for attempted assault and burglary, state records show.
After an arraignment on Monday, Mr Henry was held without bail, court officials said. Mr Mulhollen and Mrs Dragonetti were released without bail. All three are due to appear in court again this month. No one was immediately available for comment. Calls to the Steuben County District Attorney and the county’s public defender went unanswered.