White Supremacist Jailed in Chasing Case

AP in Newsday/November 12, 2003

Chicago -- An admitted white supremacist was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in federal prison for joining two knife-wielding friends in chasing four black youngsters and shouting racial epithets after a high school football game.

Harley Hermes, 21, once a member of a skinhead group, had admitted to taking part in the Aug. 30 incident in Fox Lake, a Chicago suburb.

Another man who pleaded guilty in the case, Shaun Derifield, is scheduled to be sentenced in the case by U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo on Nov. 19. Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the four victims.

A minor who took part pleaded guilty to a state mob action charge and served six months.

Prosecutors said the youngsters were walking home from a high school football game when Hermes and Derifield ran out of Derifield's home, shouting racial epithets and threatening to kill them. Prosecutors said Derifield threatened to kill one victim while holding a knife to her throat.

Police apprehended all three attackers that night.