In San Marcos, Texas, on this date in 2008, the LaRue Drive home of Moonis Ali, 63, a Texas State University professor originally from India, was broken into and police are treating the crime as a hate crime as the messages “Arab die Muslim die” and “Die Arab Die” were spray-painted inside Mr. Ali's home as well as damage to some clothing and other items in the home. This is apparently the first reported hate crime in San Marcos history.

On this date in 2008 in Monmouth County (New Jersey) Superior Court two white women, Adriane Lynn Tropiano, 40, and Angela Marie DeNigris, 40 and and both from Manalapan, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to one count each of fourth-degree bias intimidation (a hate crime) for making threatening anonymous calls to a Manalapan couple in June and July of 2007 who rented their home to a racial minority family. Although the two women could have received up to 18 months in jail, on April 25, 2008, Angela M. DeNigris was sentenced to 50 hours of community service, and Adriane L. Tropiano was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Both were ordered to have no contact with their victims.

On this date in 2008, in Madison, Wisconsin, Matthew Hulse, 38, who has apparently lived in Kansas and Madison, was arrested and charged with battery with a hate crime enhancer (a felony) and disorderly conduct. Hulse is alleged to have cursed at a black woman, including using racial slurs, at a Williamson Street party on February 9, 2008, and then allegedly began striking the woman with a small table before allegedly throwing plates and drinking glasses at her. Upon his arrest, Hulse allegedly continued to utter racial slurs and said, ”When I get out of jail, I'm going to kill her.” Despite the alleged threat uttered in front of police, and despite the fact that Hulse, who was convicted in 2007 of disorderly conduct in Dodge County, Wisconsin, could be considered a flight risk as he told the judge he plans to return to Kansas, bail was set only at $1,000. He was to return to court on February 19, 2008, for a preliminary hearing. We have no further information about this hate crime.

In East Windsor (Mercer County), New Jersey, on this date in 2008, three Hightstown High School graduates and members of an East Windsor rock band known as Smoot were charged with committing hate crimes out of the East Windsor Municipal Court for their alleged involvement in the January 7, 2008, spray-painting spree in Roosevelt, Hightstown, and East Windsor where swastikas, obscenities, anti-homosexual slurs, and political defamations on public monuments occurred. Max Drazdik, 18, of East Windsor, New Jersey and a student at George Washington University, Nikolai Afanassenkov, 18, of West Hartford, Connecticut and a student at the University of Hartford, and Nicholas Kurahara, 18, a student at the University of Delaware, could have received up to five years in prison and been fined up to $15,000, if they had been convicted as charged. Kurahara failed to show up for his arraignment on this date. On March 20, 2009, Afanassenkov, 20, and Drazdik, 19, were accepted into the pre-trial intervention program in Mercer County Court in lieu of standing trial. It was reported that the criminal records of Afanassenkov and Drazdik will be cleared of their charges if they successfully complete the intervention program. We have no further information about the three men's cases.

On this date in 2009 at the Key Colony Condos in Wildwood, Pennsylvania, the vacation condominium of the only African-American condo owner at that complex, Hassan Kelley of Newark, Delaware, was set on fire in what appears to be the second time in two weeks that Mr. Kelley has been a hate crime victim. On January 28, 2009, as reported by NBC News 10 in Philadelphia, Mr. Kelley's condominium was broken into and spray-painted throughout with racist graffiti.

On this date in 2010 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania (Westmoreland County), the murdered body of Jennifer Daugherty, 30, was discovered in a trash can in a school parking lot. Ms. Daugherty, a white mentally disabled woman with the mental capacity of a 12- to 14-year-old, was kidnapped and tortured death allegedly by three white women, two white men, and an African-American man in what authorities have said could have been a disability-based hate crime murder. Prior to being stabbed to death, Ms. Daugherty was forced to ingest urine and detergent, and forced to have her head shaved and her face painted with nail polish. She was also forced to write a suicide note, according to authorities. Arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder were: Melvin Knight, 20, Angela Marinucci, 17, Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36, Amber Meidinger, 20, and, Ricky Smyrnes, 23, all of Greensburg; and Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, of Mount Pleasant Township. Acting U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar stated the federal government could file federal hate crimes charges against the six defendants.