A white, elderly former firefighter in North Texas who was arrested on stalking charges for harassing and intimidating his black neighbor has pleaded guilty to interfering with an African American family’s right to fair housing.
Court documents accuse 64-year-old Glenn Eugene Halfin of threatening force, intimidating, and interfering with the family due to their race and the fact that they rented an apartment directly above his own, CBS DFW reports.
The neighbor in question, 28-year-old Dante Petty, had recently moved to Grapevine, Texas, with his young daughter in June 2017, when he said he immediately began to have issues with Halfin.
Petty accused Halfin of throwing eggs and dog feces on his car and tried to file a police report but was told by officers that there was nothing that could be done since there was no proof. Petty then took it upon himself to install a camera outside of his apartment, capturing Halfin tying a rope around the neck of a doll and hanging it from a railing near his apartment.
As CBS DFW notes, Halfin did so to purposefully intimidate the family.
“No one should be afraid to go home at night,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox in a news release, according to the station. “Our community will not tolerate crimes of intimidation or bigotry, and my office will continue to prosecute all those who persecute others based on their race, color, ethnicity, or religious beliefs.”
Halfin, a former firefighter and arson investigator, was arrested back in January on stalking charges and then later hit with federal charges of interfering with the right to fair housing, a misdemeanor civil rights offense.
Halfin now faces up to one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine, with his fate to be decided at a later date.