These are my neighbours
:-(
Chesterfield Man Sentenced For Cross Burning
By Staff Reports
news@morganton.com
Thursday, May 25, 2006
MORGANTON - A Burke County man will spend 20 months in federal prison for burning a cross near a neighbor's homes.
Grady Allen Carswell, 36, was convicted this week for the June 2004 cross burning near Gloria Dula's home on Bristol Creek Avenue in the Chesterfield Community.
Carswell, of 3282 Sheely Road, Lenoir, lived on Bristol Creek Avenue at the time of the incident.
In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Lacy H. Thornburg sentenced Carswell to three years supervised release and to pay Dula $2,196.57 in restitution.
"Cross burning remains a vicious symbol of hatred and cannot be tolerated," Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, said in a press release. "All American families have the right to live where they choose, undisturbed by racist threats."
According to reports in 2004, Dula found a 12-foot cross engulfed in flames across the street from her house.
Carswell told Judge Thornburg that he was responsible for burning the cross, but says he burned it because of a land dispute with another neighbor and that racial discrimination was not the reason.
Thornburg rejected the argument, according to information from the Department of Justice.
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Morganton.com *sigh* We gotta get outta this place...