(NAME-MCE) Man Indicted On Federal Conspiracy Charges For Displaying Noose

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Man Indicted On Federal Conspiracy Charges For Displaying Noose

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, and a juvenile member of the Ku Klux Klan
allegedly conspired in criminal threats and harassment by attaching
nooses to pick-up trucks and then repeatedly driving past civil rights
marchers gathered at a bus depot last September.

Complete story below.  For better format, pictures, and related stories, go
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*http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/24/jena.indictment/index.html*

Thu January 24, 2008
Man faces charges over nooses on truck at Jena march

*WASHINGTON (CNN)* -- A man has been indicted on federal charges for
allegedly displaying hangman's nooses from the back of a pickup truck during
a civil rights march last year in Jena, Louisiana.

[image: art.noose2.irpt.jpg]

A photo taken by I-Reporter Casanova Love shows a noose hanging from a
pickup in Alexandria,
Louisiana.<javascript:CNN_changeMosaicTab('cnnPhotoCmpnt','photos.html');>

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Grant Parish, repeatedly drove slowly past a group
of marchers gathered at a bus depot in Alexandria, which is near Jena, as
they awaited buses to return them to Tennessee, federal authorities said
Thursday.

As many as 20,000 marchers had taken part in the huge protests in Jena.
Authorities there had been accused of injustice in the handling of racially
charged cases, including the hanging of nooses in a tree after a group of
black high school students sat in an area where traditionally only white
students sat.

The noose incident at Jena <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/jena_louisiana> was
the beginning of months of racial tension that included the beating of a
white student, allegedly by six black classmates. The black students were
prosecuted, but the three white students responsible for the nooses in the
tree were not.

Munsen and an unnamed conspirator had attached nooses to their pickup on
September 20 and driven to Alexandria specifically to threaten and
intimidate the marchers, the authorities said. [image: Photo]View a series
of photos of the truck
»<http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/24/jena.indictment/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto>

A juvenile passenger was apprehended with Munsen, according to the arresting
officer's report.

The juvenile told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and that
he had "KKK" tattooed on his chest, the police report said. He also said
that he tied the nooses and that brass knuckles found in the truck belonged
to him, the report said.

   - <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/news/jena6/>

"This indictment accuses the defendant [Munsen] of conduct that constitutes
a federal civil rights
<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/civil_rights>conspiracy violation and a
federal hate crime," said
U.S. Attorney Donald Washington.

Washington and Grace Chung Becker, acting head of the Justice Department's
Civil Rights Division, announced the indictment, issued by a grand jury in
Shreveport, Louisiana.

A photograph of the truck was sent to CNN by I-Reporter Casanova Love, 26,
who said he is in the U.S. military. He was visiting his family in
Louisiana<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/louisiana>and said he witnessed
the event.

Love added, "If the police had not stepped in, I fear what might have
happened."