http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200660526004

WNC man gets 20 months in prison for cross burning

by Asheville Citizen-Times
published May 26, 2006 8:42 am

ASHEVILLE – A Burke County man has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to erecting and burning a wooden cross near the residence of neighbors.

Judge Lacy H. Thornburg also ordered that Grady Allan Carswell, 36, pay $2,197 in restitution to the victims.

“Cross burning remains a vicious symbol of hatred and cannot be tolerated,” said Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. “All American families have the right to live where they choose, undisturbed by racist threats. This sentencing sends a clear message that the Justice Department will vigorously prosecute such criminal conduct.”

The defendant pleaded guilty in January 2005 to a one-count federal bill of indictment related to the incident, which occurred in Burke County on June 5, 2004.

According to court documents the incident occurred in the evening hours in the Bristol Creek Community of Burke County. At the sentencing hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court in Asheville, Thornburg rejected the defendant’s argument that while he was indeed responsible for burning the cross, that he burned it because of a land dispute with another neighbor and that racial discrimination did not play a part in his unlawful activities.