Men plead innocent to hate-crime charges

Three Marion men - charged in connection with what investigators believe was a racially motivated attack on migrant mushroom pickers - pleaded innocent Thursday to hate crimes.

Flathead County prosecutors allege Edward Lee Hubbs, 26, Daniel James Devine, 25, and Karl Trent, 46, were among a group of white men who assaulted a group of Laotian, Cambodian and Thai morel mushroom pickers at the Moose Crossing campground in Marion.

All three men are charged in Flathead County District Court with malicious intimidation or harassment relating to civil or human rights, a felony.

According to authorities, Trent, Hubbs and Devine were among about half a dozen men who pulled up to the campsite in two pickup trucks and a car shortly after 10 p.m. on July 12 and began hurling beer bottles and racial slurs at the mushroom pickers.

Hubbs is accused of firing six to seven rifle rounds into the air during the melee.

Vernon Taber, who owns the Moose Crossing campground, told authorities the attack appeared to be motivated by racial hatred.

But Hubbs' attorney, Lane K. Bennett, has said that race had nothing to do with the incident. Bennett, whose office will conduct an independent investigation, has said that additional evidence from other witnesses needs to be evaluated.

The alleged attack at the Moose Crossing campsite followed a confrontation between Hubbs and a group of migrant mushroom pickers at the Bitterroot Quick Stop on U.S. 2 in Marion just before 8 p.m. on July 12, according to Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan.

Details of what sparked that confrontation are contradictory.

Sheriff's detectives think Hubbs confronted the mushroom pickers after his sister overheard them threatening to take him outside and beat him up, Meehan said.

But Bennett said that the mushroom pickers instigated the incident and were waiting for Hubbs outside the store, reportedly because they thought he had said something disrespectful when he asked if they were waiting in line.

The mushroom pickers, however, told detectives they had no idea what sparked the confrontation at the convenience store, Meehan said.

No additional arrests in connection to the alleged attack are expected.

If convicted, Trent, Hubbs, and Devine each face as long as five years in prison and $5,000 fines.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com