A white Springfield man angered by Barack Obama’s election as the country’s first black president pleaded guilty yesterday to federal civil rights charges for burning down a black church in 2008.
Benjamin Haskell, 23, faces a mandatory incarceration of at least 108 months when he’s sentenced Sept. 29 by U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor.
“Today’s conviction should send a strong message that hate crimes will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted in Massachusetts,” U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said.
Haskell torched the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield on Nov. 5, 2008, within hours of Obama’s election. The church - which had been under construction at the time of the attack - had about 300 members, 90 percent of whom were black, according to federal authorities.
Two other men charged in the case, Thomas Gleason Jr., 22, and Michael Jacques, 25, have pleaded not guilty.
Investigators said they were led to the suspects by an informant.
The men told the informant they had set the fire, according to an FBI affidavit. When the informant asked Haskell why, Haskell said “because it was a black church,” according to the affidavit.
Haskell pleaded guilty to conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate the church’s 300 parishioners and to damaging religious property because of the race of individuals associated with the church.
The news was greeted with quiet relief by church members.
“I’m pleased,” said Bishop Bryant Robinson, pastor of the church, yesterday. “We’ll just kind of see what happens with the other two.”
Robinson said the steel frame for the church has been rebuilt. He was at the site yesterday, watching the progress, rather than at the court dwelling on the arson.
“There’s positive activity on the site,” he said. “That’s a good feeling, and that’s moving us forward to final closure on this particular chapter in our history.”
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