The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged three people with a hate crime for allegedly firing water pellets at the dozen or so people standing outside the gay bar Pony, 1221 E Madison St, on February 19.
According to charging documents, 24-year-old Jessica Jay Clark, 19-year-old Justin Michael Mayor (the son of an Episcopal minister in Puyallup, according to Clark’s mother) and a 17-year-old (whom The Stranger is not naming because he is a juvenile) circled the bar for over an hour in a dark blue 2005 Lexus LS300 Sedan with a “WRLD 999” sticker on the back window, calling the people outside the bar “f****ts” and “tr***y, and yelling that they hated “f***s.”
According to charging documents, the suspects passed a toy gun back and forth between them, firing water pellets at the crowd and striking a woman on the arm. At one point, Mayor and the teenage boy walked up to the bar to yell more slurs at people, but they fled when Pony employees confronted them. Then they drove around the block a couple more times, according to witnesses who spoke to the police, and a person who works the door at Pony, Carrie-Ann. All this driving around gave witnesses time to snap the photos they shared with police, which clearly showed the car’s license plate and led the cops to Clark via a law enforcement database. (In 2022, she’d reported her car stolen to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.)
Clark told police she didn’t know Pony was a gay bar, but knew Capitol Hill was a gay neighborhood. They had come to the Hill for some Dave’s Hot Chicken. After stopping by the Space Needle and then ordering food, Clark said they happened upon the bar, and the “furries” standing outside it, while looking for a place to park and eat.
Mayor, who was driving, started circling. Clark said that she was in the backseat with her headphones on when the other two started “barking” and yelling slurs at people outside Pony.
After lapping 3 or 4 times, they stopped and switched drivers. Clark took the wheel and circled one or two more times as Mayor and the 17-year-old passed the toy gun back and forth. Mayor told police only he and the 17-year-old fired it, but witnesses told police Clark did as well. As the 17-year-old filmed the people standing outside Pony, the crowd spat at them and threw things at the car.
Clark says she then parked near the rainbow crosswalk on 11th and walked alone to Cal Anderson Park to finish eating. Mayor and the 17-year-old went their own way, taking the toy gun with them. Clark claimed she hadn’t seen or known about the toy gun until that moment.
Mayor told police that he thought they’d taken things too far by the time they’d walked up to the bar to yell at people. In videos taken by the 17-year-old, the teen is heard saying  “Are you guys good boys, I know you are,” and asking the patrons to “bark” for him before calling them f****ts.
After Mayor and the teen returned to the car, Clark circled the bar one or two more times. A photo of one of these passes shows Mayor pointing the toy gun out the passenger-side window, his arm straight, the 17-year-old teen’s face peeking from the back window.
On March 4, Seattle Police Department Bias Crimes Detective Jillian Williamson referred the hate crime charges to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, writing that Clark and Mayor had come forth willingly and expressed remorse.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Yessenia Manzo filed charges against the adults, Clark and Mayor, on April 3. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Erickson-Mills filed charges against the juvenile on April 9th. According to charging documents, none of the defendants have criminal records.
Clark and Mayor are expected in King County Court for an arraignment hearing on April 17, where they will enter their initial plea. The 17-year-old’s hearing is scheduled for April 22 at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center.
Since 2018, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged 355 hate crimes. Hate crimes of all types steeply rose at the start of the pandemic, but have since been on the decline.
