Yesterday the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (KCPAO) charged three suspects with hate crimes. The 17-, 19-, and 24-year-olds were arrested by Seattle Police last month after being tied to the hate crime that occurred in February at Pony, where they allegedly subjected patrons to anti-LGBTQIA+ slurs and fired up on them with water pellets.

"King County prosecutors asked the Court to order the defendants to have no contact with the nightclub where the incident happened and to have no contact with a victim who was hit with gel water pellets," Casey McNerthney, KCPAO's director of communications, said.

Jessica Jaye Clark, 24, and Justin Michael Mayor, 19, are the two adult suspects facing hate crime charges. The KCPAO charging documents state that Clark "participated in the homophobic harassment of a group of patrons standing outside of an LGBTQ nightclub in Seattle," and that as she repeatedly drove past Pony for about an hour, the suspects within her car shouted "faggots" and that they "hate fags" at Pony patrons.

"The passengers even escalated to assaulting the group by shooting at them with gel water pellets, successfully hitting victim [redacted by the SGN] in the arm," according to the charging documents.

Clark and Mayor have a court date scheduled for April 17 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse. The unnamed minor has a next court at 9 a.m. on April 22 at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center in Seattle.

Last year, McNerthney said, there were a total of four cases involving hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation that were referred to KCPAO and charged, with an additional three involving gender or gender expression.

anti-sexual orientation hate crimes that were referred to KCPAO and charged, with an additional three cases involving anti-gender or gender expression.

"When there is evidence to show that people were victimized by a hate crime in whole or in part because of a defendant's bias–those perpetrators must be held accountable," King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said.