Photographer To Release Shenandoah Documentary This Fall

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Schuylkill County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer was on his way to the coal region to scout ideas for a film about working-class America, all hell was breaking loose in Shenandoah.

David Turnley remembered the call he received en route from New York City to Schuylkill County.

“As I was heading to the coal region, a friend of mine called and said, ‘You should go to Shenandoah, Pa., where four of the town’s star sons, all straight-A students and football players, have been charged with killing an undocumented Mexican immigrant,” Turnley recalled. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess I should go to Shenandoah.’ ”

He stayed two years, filming, shooting photographs and documenting the events surrounding the beating death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala.

Read more: http://republicanherald.com/news/photographer-to-release-shenandoah-documentary-this-fall-1.1355046

Shenandoah Men Guilty Of Federal Hate Crime In Beating Death Of Immigrant

Image via Wikipedia

Two Schuylkill County men were found guilty of federal hate crimes in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant, Luis Ramirez. Brandon Piekarsky (18) and Derrick Donchak (20), both of Shenandoah, were convicted by a jury in Scranton.  Donchak was also convicted of two other counts relating to a cover-up plot with Shenandoah Police.  At the time ol the 2008 beating, the accused were high school football players.

Both men were taken away in handcuffs and ordered held until their January 24th sentencing.  They were acquitted of more serious charges by a jury in Pottsville.

Two Shenandoah police officers will go on trial early next year for their role in the attempted cover-up.