On this date in 1999, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dawn Witherspoon, a white supremacist, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for her role in the robbing and beating of a Hollywood, Florida, adult video store owner who was Jewish on March 29, 1998. Angela D. King, 26 (who served a prison sentence at the Lowell Correctional Institute and was released on June 24, 2005 giving a Woodsville, Alabama address upon her release), Raymond Leone, 18 (who served a prison sentence and was released on August 26, 2002 giving a Lewistown, Illinois address upon his release), and Donald M. Hansard, 24 (who served a prison sentence and was released on March 4, 2003), were members of the neo-Nazi hate group, the World Church of the Creator, and were also convicted in the attack.

In Annapolis, Maryland, on this date in 2008, the Maryland House of Delegates voted 114 to 19 to add nooses and swastikas as hate symbols, making it a crime to place the symbols of racial hate anywhere besides one's own property, if the intent is to intimidate. The 19 opponents were all Republicans.

On this date in 2010 in a Woburn, Massachusetts courtroom, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Bruce Henry granted a civil rights injunction requested by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office. The injunction, requested under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, prohibits two former college athletes and Wakefield, Massachusetts natives—Sarah J. Blackwell and Nichole Coscia—from violating the civil rights of persons in Massachusetts based upon their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Sarah Blackwell, 26—a former Salem State College soccer player—and Nichole Coscia—a Wakefield High School graduate (2005) and Sacred Heart University graduate in accounting (2009) who lives in Easton, Connecticut—allegedly verbally taunted, and then kicked and beat an Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority Orange Line subway passenger while hurling anti-gay slurs at him. When MBTA police arrived at the scene of the January, 2010 attack, Blackwell and Coscia allegedly were verbally threatening and physically resisted arrest. If Blackwell or Coscia violate the injunction, which is a criminal offense, they could receive a fine of up to $5,000 and two-and-a-half years in county jail; or, if bodily injury results from such violation, then they could receive a $10,000 fine and up to ten years in state prison.

In the early morning hours in the Saugus neighborhood of Santa Clarita, California (Los Angeles County) on this date in 2011, a black man, Anthony Bedgood, 31, had his car, a 2009 Scion TC, set on fire in front of his home in the 2700 block of Satinwood Drive; and, his white roommate's SUV, a 2005 GMC Yukon, had all of its tires slashed and was also damaged by the car fire. Pentagrams had been spray-painted in red on the SUV's hood and swastikas had been carved into the SUV. The garage door where the victims lived also was vandalized with a racial slur, a pentagram, and a demand that the residents leave their home. Police, who classified this attack as a hate crime, need your assistance. If you have any information about this incident, please, call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or text the letters "TIPLA" plus your tip to CRIMES (274637). Or, you can call Detective Larry Lewis directly at 323-881-7500.

In Newport Beach, California, on this date in 2011, a Muslim taxi driver responding to a call was first allegedly accosted by the owner of the La Habana Cigar Company at 107 Palm Street on the Newport peninsula who identified himself as a Marine; then the Palestinian-born driver was allegedly physically assaulted by the store owner and three men who exited the cigar store. The three men demanded the taxi driver tell them his religion and where he is from. They then allegedly said to the driver, "We're going to fuck you up like we fucked up your country," before one of the men allegedly placed the Muslim taxi driver in a headlock and then punched him. The other two men and the cigar shop owner also allegedly began punching the victim. After a few minutes, the lounge owner reportedly said, "Stop, we've fucked him enough." The taxi driver suffered facial and head injuries in the attack. According to the Cuban-American cigar shop owner, Edgar Uria, after the Muslim taxi driver became incensed with a Hispanic taxi driver and called that driver a "wetback," three nearby bar patrons, one of them Hispanic, became involved in a physical altercation with the Muslim taxi driver over his use of a racial slur. Mr. Uria said he tried to help the taxi driver during the assault on him by the three bar patrons.

On this date in 2011 in Billings, Montana, a white man with an extensive criminal history but with no prior felony convictions, Jason Lee Paullin, 34, of Billings, commanded his dog to attack a 44-year-old black man who was walking down Gatewood Drive. Paullin—who was previously convicted of assault, theft, disorderly conduct, obstructing, forgery and domestic violence—then walked up to the black man, asked him for a cigarette, and knocked a cigarette out of the victim’s mouth while hurling a racial slur at him. Then Paullin physically threatened the victim and continued to utter racial slurs. Jason Paullin pleaded not guilty in District Court on March 25, 2011, to malicious intimidation or harassment relating to civil or human rights (a felony hate crime). If convicted as charged, Jason L. Paullin could have received up to five years in prison. On May 20, 2011, Paullin, 34—who remained in jail since his arrest—pleaded guilty to his hate crime charge as part of a plea bargain. He was sentenced on August 4, 2011, by Judge Susan Watters to no jail time; instead, the judge handed Paullin, 35, a three-year deferred sentence, ordering him to complete 40 hours of anger management classes and ordering him to complete a chemical dependency evaluation. Deputy County Attorney Ingrid Rosenquist had asked the judge to give Jason Paullin a three-year jail sentence along with anger management classes and the substance abuse evaluation. At his sentencing Paullin apologized for his actions, but he said, "I am not a racist and never have been, despite what I’ve said and done."