A 32-year-old Lyons, N.Y., man is facing multiple charges, including one pertaining to a hate crime, after authorities say that he broke into his black neighbor’s home, hurled racially motivated threats at the man and even used a chain hung over a tree to suggest a lynching.
According to the Finger Lakes Times, Adam J. Doucet is facing charges of second-degree burglary, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree aggravated harassment as a hate crime in the incident.
Acting Wayne County, N.Y., District Attorney Chris Bokelman told the Times that state police officers arrested Doucet on Sunday after he was allegedly involved in the racist attack on a black neighbor.
Bokelman said that Doucet forced his way into his neighbor’s home with a crowbar and a large plumber’s wrench before hurling racially motivated threats at the man. Doucet then left the home but took a chain and hung it over a tree limb in his yard, apparently in an attempt to intimidate and suggest a lynching.
“It’s terribly unfortunate,” Bokelman said, which isn’t the word I would use to describe the incident, but, I guess.
He told the Times that his office hasn’t prosecuted many hate crimes because “it doesn’t get enforced a lot up here.”
Doucet, for his part, is currently in Wayne County Jail in lieu of $5,000. However, he had a hearing Wednesday afternoon, and Bokelman is awaiting an update on Doucet’s bail and/or court status, the Times notes.
Read more at the Finger Lakes Times.