3 Charged With Hate Crimes After Racist Tracts Flood Small New York City

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The first report that someone was spreading white supremacist literature in Hornell, NY, came to the police early Sunday.

A worshiper arriving for services at Rehoboth Deliverance Ministries a largely Black church in the mostly white city of around 8,500 about an hour south of Rochester found a leaflet affixed to the door, the police chief, TJ Murray, said in an interview on Tuesday. On it were the words Aryan National Army and an image of a skull inside a swastika, he said.

By the time the weekend was over, Chief Murray said, officers had found similar material across town, mostly in plastic bags that also held rocks (presumably to keep them from blowing away). The tracts were in doorways, driveways and a park; on the porches of homes; and attached to the front of the Temple Beth-El synagogue.

Before daybreak on Monday, the chief said, officers encountered two men in the act of distributing the literature. After the police searched their home, the men, Dylan Henry, 30, and Ryan Mulhollen, 27, and a woman, Aubrey Dragonetti, 31, were arrested and charged with 115 counts apiece one for each leaflet of a felony hate crime.

Hornells mayor, John Buckley, described the blanketing of the city with racist, anti-Semitic literature as shocking and an aberration in what he and Chief Murray, a 40-year veteran of the Hornell police force, both called a close-knit community.

These are three misguided individuals who have hate in their hearts, Mr. Buckley said. This is something that is not reflective of Hornell.

The city, a former rail hub in Steuben County that census data shows is 93 percent white, is in New Yorks Southern Tier region. Racial attitudes in the area drew scrutiny after a gunman driven by racism killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket in May. The man charged in the massacre is from Conklin, NY, a Southern Tier village two hours east of Hornell.

Sandy Messing, 75, the synagogues secretary, said she was stunned that the temple had been targeted. Such an act was totally at odds with her experience in the area, she said.

Nothing like this has ever happened in my years there, said Ms. Messing, who grew up in Hornell, spent much of her working life in Rochester and moved back to nearby Arkport after retiring. No racial issues. No prejudice whatsoever.

Built in 1946, Temple Beth-El is listed on the state and national registers of historic places as emblematic of the Jewish communities that took root in New Yorks small upstate cities many years ago.

Even in a peak period decades ago, just 34 families worshiped there regularly, said Jane Jamison, Ms. Messings predecessor as secretary. Today, the congregation has dwindled to four families, and the synagogue opens only for the High Holy Days and on certain other special occasions.

Ms. Jamison, 91, said she, too, was stunned that people had read Hornell with antisemitic literature. She moved to the area to attend Alfred University after growing up on Manhattans Upper West Side and then settled in Hornell, drawn by the friendly, small-town atmosphere and lovely people.

It was comfortable, said Ms. Jamison, who taught at Hornells high school for 30 years before retiring.

In searching the residence shared by Mr. Henry, Mr. Mulhollen and Ms. Dragonetti, Chief Murray said, officers found two computers and several cellphones the three had used to communicate with others about the distribution of the material.

The investigation was continuing into the nature of those communications and into the Aryan National Army, Chief Murray said. Ms. Dragonetti, he said, had been charged after officers determined that she had prepared the bags the men dropped around town.

The charge the three are facing, first-degree aggravated harassment, makes it a crime to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm another person because of their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, 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 have served time in state prison Mr. Mulhollen on a drug charge and Mr. Henry for attempted assault and burglary, state records show.

After an arraignment on Monday, Mr. Henry was being held without bail, court officials said. Mr. Mulhollen and Ms. Dragonetti were released without bail. All three are scheduled to return to short this month. None could immediately be reached for comment. Calls to Steuben Countys district attorney and the countys public defender were not returned.

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