CRANBERRY TWP — A Cranberry Township man faces 10 counts of federal hate crimes charges after prosecutors say he and a coworker carried on a more than yearlong string of abuse at a Beaver County care facility.

Tyler Smith, 31, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes, 10 counts of hate crimes and one count of concealment of material facts related to health care, all related to actions he allegedly committed at McGuire Memorial in 2016 and 2017.

Also indicted was his coworker, Zachary Dinell, 28, who currently resides at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette.

Federal prosecutors allege Smith and Dinell, between June 2016 and September 2017, committed a litany of abusive acts toward residents of McGuire Memorial, a New Brighton-based care facility for individuals with disabilities, “because of the residents’ physical and mental disabilities.”

“Zachary Dinell and Tyler Smith sought to inflict bodily injury, including injury involving extreme pain and the protracted impairment of bodily function, on McGuire Memorial residents, but in a manner that any resulting visible injuries plausibly could be attributed to the residents’ disabilities and as a result would draw less scrutiny from McGuire Memorial staff,” the indictment states.

Both former employees, prosecutors charge, would inflict these injuries by punching, kicking, jumping on and choking residents, as well as by rubbing “caustic substances” in their eyes and “spraying and throwing liquids” into residents’ mouths.

Smith pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children in 2021, according to public court documents, resulting in a 2-year sentence of probation. Dinell was sentenced to 10 to 31 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2020 to numerous counts of neglect of a care-dependent person and invasion of privacy, as well as one count each of endangering the welfare of children and criminal use of a communication facility.

In a statement issued Friday, U.S. Attorney Cindy K. Chung pledged to combat instances of hate crimes against people with disabilities.

“The defendants are charged with targeting the most vulnerable members of our community because of their disabilities,” Chung said in the statement. “The defendants’ alleged hate crimes involved victims who were unable to defend themselves or report what happened to them.”

The indictment lays out allegations of how Smith and Dinell mistreated 13 different residents at McGuire, all of whom, the indictment states, were nonverbal.

“The actions associated with the charges announced today are disturbing, to say the least,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Mike Nordwall. “Our office is committed to combating hate crime, seeking justice and, most importantly, providing assistance to victims.”

In addition to the specific allegations of mistreatment, the indictment includes text messages between Smith and Dinell, which prosecutors say shows the two conspired to commit the hate crimes.

“On or about Sept. 28, 2016, (Smith) texted (Dinell), ‘[Resident 1] won’t be satisfied until he gets thrown off the highest point of a steel cage onto concrete to put him outta his misery,’” the indictment states. “(Dinell) later responded, ‘I was thinking about throwing [Resident 1] into the dumpster out back and burying him so they’d take him with the garbage but then I remembered his sheep instincts would kick in and someone would hear him.’”

The often profanity-laced text messages were interspersed with photographs and videos of how the two mistreated residents, prosecutors claim.

“On or about March 5, 2017, (Smith) jumped on top of Resident 9, a 13-year-old minor, while Resident 9 was lying prone on his bed, and while (Dinell) filmed the incident on his cellular phone,” the indictment states. “Immediately after recording the video, (Dinell) texted it to (Smith).”

Among the other videos and images sent between the two, prosecutors allege, are a video of Dinell rubbing “a clear liquid irritant” in a resident’s eyes — Dinell stated in a later text he “sanitized” the resident — and a photograph Smith sent of a resident whose head was on a pillow near a “reddish spot” Smith claimed was the resident’s blood.

According to prosecutors, the defendants face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the 10 hate crimes charges, and penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy and concealment charges.