Mississippi man pleads guilty to federal hate crime for cross burning

A Seminary, Mississippi man pleaded guilty to federal charges that he burned a cross in an African-American neighborhood in 2017 to "scare and intimidate" residents.

Louie Bernard Revette, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of interference with housing rights, a federal civil rights violation, and one count of using fire during the commission of a federal felony, according to a Department of Justice news release.

“The defendant’s racially motivated actions sought to threaten and intimidate the peaceful residents of this community,” Assistant Attorney Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division said in the news release. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate abhorrent and hateful acts of intimidation, and we will continue to prosecute anyone who commits a hate crime to the fullest extent of the law.”

In his plea, Revette admitted that he traveled to what he knew to be a predominantly African-American residential area of Seminary, Mississippi. He admitted that he left the area, later recruiting a co-conspirator to build a cross to burn near the home of a juvenile victim identified as M.H. Revette and the co-conspirator constructed the cross using materials from in and around Revette’s residence, placed the cross near M.H.’s home, and lit it on fire. Revette further admitted that he built and burned the cross to threaten, frighten, and intimidate M.H. and other African-American residents because of their race and color, and because those individuals lived in and occupied residences in that area of Seminary, Mississippi.

Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2019/04/12/mississippi-man-pleads-guilty-federal-hate-crime-cross-burning/3453489002/