A man from Des Moines has been arrested and charged with staging alleged “hate crimes” against himself and his ex-girlfriend. Twenty-year-old Luis Ernesto Silva, a Latino, has been charged with two counts of arson; he’s been charged with stalking and he’s been charged with making at least three false reports to police. Back in November, Silva began asking police to investigate alleged hate crimes against him and his girlfriend’s family, including one incident in which someone wrote racial graffiti on the walls of the home he shared with his girlfriend. There were a couple of car fires. In one incident, Silva told police he was carjacked and shot at before his vehicle was set on fire. Cops say Silva has now admitted he lied about all of the cases and even stabbed himself to claim he’d been attacked. A news release from the Des Moines police department says Silva’s girlfriend and her family wanted to cut ties with Silva, so he started lying about being the target of hate crimes in order to remain a part of his girlfriend’s family.
