Illinois Attorney General files hate crime lawsuit against white mother and son accused of harassing Black neighbor

CHICAGO (CBS) — A mom and son in western Illinois are the to start with to be sued by the condition for a hate criminal offense less than a 2018 growth of the state’s despise criminal offense legislation.

Illinois Legal professional Normal Kwame Raoul’s place of work filed the lawsuit from Chad and Cheryl Hampton, who are each white. They’re accused of harassing their Black neighbor, Gregory Johnson, in Savanna, Illinois, for various months.

“Our complaint alleges the defendants intentionally used the shameful record of lynching and racism in The united states to terrorize and instill concern in their up coming-doorway neighbor just mainly because he is Black. No a single should really be subjected to this variety of loathe,” Raoul reported in a assertion.

The accommodate promises the Hamptons exhibited the racial slur n***** in entrance of a Confederate flag in a window experiencing the victim’s home, exhibited swastikas in direct perspective of the victim’s house, and even made use of a noose to dangle an effigy of a Black gentleman designed to resemble the target from a tree in entrance of his home.

“I appeared out of my new dwelling at a Black-faced model shackled and lynched on a tree department, the N-phrase scrawled upon a window, and swastikas,” Johnson claimed in a statement delivered by Raoul’s office. “Our American flag was changed with their Accomplice flag. Have we not come any farther than this? This lawsuit is about tearing off the shackles that still restrain us to this working day. It is really about never offering up on the mission of our United States Constitution. We, as a nation, are much better than this.”

The lawsuit, filed in Carroll County, seeks more than $25,000 in damages from the two Chad and Cheryl Hampton.

Individually, Carroll County prosecutors have charged Chad Hampton with prison destruction of property, and Cheryl Hampton with legal harassment of a witness.