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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man accused of yelling racial slurs at the young son of a black man and then shocking the father with a stun cane has been sentenced to nine months behind bars — an outcome called disheartening by a civil rights leader.
The Deseret News reports defendant Mark O. Porter unleashed a diatribe describing African-Americans as "pimps" and "drug dealers" when he was sentenced Thursday.
Prosecutors had asked for nearly four years in prison after Porter was convicted of a civil-rights housing violation that authorities called a hate crime.
NAACP Chapter President Jeanetta Williams said the punishment doesn't send a strong message that hate crimes won't be tolerated.
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson condemned the speech as racist but said he had to impose a sentence warranted by the confrontation.
Defense attorneys argued the altercation was fueled by previous tensions rather than racism.
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