Pair Cop Pleas To Interfering With Housing Rights Of Black Residents; Duo Charged With Engaging In Racially-Motivated Intimidation, Vandalism On Their Homes

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• Two Spring Hill, Tenn., men pleaded guilty in federal court [] for their involvement in a racially-motivated conspiracy to interfere with the housing rights of African-American residents of the Spring Lake subdivision of Spring Hill, the Justice Department announced. Dakota James Calderhead, 20, and Kristian Chancellor Mathis, 19, each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn., to one count of conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights.
  
  According to their plea agreements, on or about December 30, 2011, Calderhead and Mathis conspired to vandalize homes in the Spring Lake subdivision. Mathis admitted to spray painting a swastika and racial slurs on the driveway of an African-American family’s residence.
  
  Calderhead admitted that he fashioned a noose which Mathis hung from a tree outside of the residence. Calderhead also admitted to hanging a second noose from the driver’s side rearview mirror of the school bus located in front of another African-American family’s residence.
  
  Both defendants further admitted that their acts of vandalism were intimidating, and motivated, in part, by the race, color, or ethnicity of the victims.

For the Justice Department press release, see Two Tennessee Men Plead Guilty to Conspiring to Violate Civil Rights of African-American Residents.