He burned a cross on a Black family’s lawn, feds say. Now Virginia man faces prison
During the early morning hours on June 14 — in the midst of a summer marked by racial unrest — a Black family in Virginia found a cross burning in their front yard.
A neighbor would later tell investigators he saw a “white, skinny man” walking away from the blaze and into a house across the street.
Now that man, identified by authorities as 41-year-old James Brown, faces up to 10 years in prison. Brown pleaded guilty on Thursday to using force or the threat of force to interfere with federally protected housing rights based on race — which is a federal crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said in a news release.
“Acts of hatred, intimidation and the threat of force, carried out by the racially motivated cross burning in this case, illegally interfered with their federally protected housing rights,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Bubar said. “This illegal, divisive behavior destroys communities and will not be tolerated.”
Public defenders appointed to represent Brown did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Friday.
According to court records, police were called to a house in Marion, Virginia, just before 1 a.m. on June 14 after residents reported hearing a gunshot. Marion, about 150 miles north of Charlotte, has just under 6,000 residents — 89% of whom are white, according to U.S. Census records.
A woman reportedly flagged down the responding officer and said someone put a burning cross in her front yard. Her son had organized a civil rights protest in town earlier that day, investigators said, and she “broke into tears while describing the incident.”
Police used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames and found two pieces of wood screwed together in the shape of a cross propped up on a barrel. Witnesses told investigators they saw a man who matched Brown’s description leaving the scene, and one neighbor said Brown had previously talked about burning crosses while using derogatory language to describe Black people.
“I did it,” Brown reportedly told the neighbor that night.
Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Brown on June 26 . He was arrested and released a few days later, court filings show. A grand jury subsequently indicted Brown on charges of making false statements, interfering with housing rights, using fire in violation of federal law and unlawfully possessing guns.
Brown was arrested again in September after a federal judge said he violated the conditions of his release. He was re-released on an unsecured bond the following month, placed on home detention and barred from any contact with the victims.
Brown’s case was set to go to trial in early May before he pleaded guilty Thursday, court documents show. He has since been taken off home detention.
