MONROE, La. (AP) _ A north Louisiana man accused of helping hang a dead raccoon in a noose outside a school to intimidate black students has been charged with conspiring to commit a hate crime.
Friday's four-count indictment also charges 33-year-old Christopher Shane Montgomery, of Bastrop, with tampering with a witness and lying to an FBI agent.
Federal prosecutors said Montgomery and another person, who isn't identified in the indictment, were trying to intimidate black students attending Bastrop's Beekman Junior High School under a court-ordered busing policy when they hung the raccoon and noose from a flagpole outside the school in November 2007.
Montgomery faces up to 40 years in prison if he's convicted of the charges.
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