California man sentenced for racially based hate crimes
February 13th, 2010 - 5:11 am ICT by BNO NewsFRESNO, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – A California man was convicted and sentenced for making racially based threats and providing false statements to an FBI agent, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said Friday.
Bradley J. Smith, 27, of Modesto, California made many race-based threats on citizen’s band radio against an African-American man, including threats to burn a cross on the victim’s lawn, firebomb the victim’s house, and hang the victim from a tree while sexually assaulting the victim’s wife.
Smith actually went to the victim’s home with a group of approximately six people before local police officers intervened. As a result of his actions, the victim eventually moved from the Modesto area to another community in the Central Valley.
Smith was convicted on May 19, 2008 and was sentenced on August 22, 2008 to serve a prison term of 78 months followed by a supervised release term of 36 months.
“The Department of Justice puts a very high priority on investigating and prosecuting hate crimes,” U.S. Attorney Wagner said. “No member of society should be subjected to racial threats and intimidation of the sort that the defendant engaged in here,” he added.
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