Man threatened to kill Black worker who didn’t give him Social Security card, feds say

A man is accused of threatening to kill a Black employee at a Social Security office in Washington because of his race, federal prosecutors said.

Now Steven L. Veres, 41, of Thurston County, is charged with a hate crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.

Veres went with a friend on Feb. 16 to get a replacement Social Security card from the Social Security office in Olympia, prosecutors said. There, the employee informed him of the proper documents he needed for a new card, prosecutors said.

Veres returned to the office later that day with documents and became enraged with the employee when he told Veres the paperwork was not sufficient for a replacement Social Security card, prosecutors said.

He’s accused of hurling racial slurs at the worker and threatening to “assault and murder him,” according to prosecutors and a superseding indictment.

On Oct. 16, Veres appeared in federal court in Tacoma and was arraigned on charges of influencing a federal official by threat and interference with federally protected activities, the attorney’s office announced in a news release that day.

McClatchy News contacted federal public defenders representing Veres for comment on Oct. 17 and didn’t receive an immediate response.

The charge of influencing a federal official by threat carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, according to the release.

If Veres is convicted of that charge, he could also face a $250,000 fine, the release said.

The charge of interference with a federally protected activity carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison, prosecutors said.

It falls under a federal hate crime law that “makes it a crime to use or threaten to use force to willfully interfere with a person’s participation in a federally protected activity because of race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Veres is due back in court on Nov. 28 for a jury trial, court records show.

This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Man threatened to kill Black worker who didn’t give him Social Security card, feds say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.