After a series of attacks on her property, including racial slurs and swastikas painted on her garage door, an elderly black woman in Zachary, Louisiana, is suing the parents of the 13-year-old boy accused of vandalizing her home, who has already been charged with hate crimes.
Caroline Morrison-Howard and her son, Kwasi Wallace, filed a civil lawsuit in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court on June 4, alleging that her neighbors, Ryan Pope and Jamie Pope (and their insurance company) must compensate her for the racist reign of terror their son has engaged in over the past several months, forcing her to leave her home.
The teenager began attacking the woman’s property in late December, the lawsuit says, when a caregiver for Morrison-Howard walked outside and found that one of her car tires had been punctured, The Advocate reported.
In mid-February, the homeowner was alerted by neighbors that a ditch next to her property was set on fire. Two months later, on April 21, the caregiver’s car tire was punctured again, and a swastika was carved into the paint of her vehicle.
Racist Vandalism Escalates from Property Damage to Klan Imagery
The teen’s actions escalated on May 24, the complaint says, when he walked across the street wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood and spray-painted “hate speech” on the plaintiffs’ home that included the “N-word,” “HH” for “Heil Hitler,” and the number 1488, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi slogan, the lawsuit says.
“You don’t never know if you’ll be able to walk out of your door at night without somebody throwing something on you or throwing something on your house,” a shaken Morrison-Howard, who is 71, told WAFB two days later. She said she had lived in her house for 30 years and “never experienced anything like this.”
She showed a reporter red swastikas that had been painted on trees behind her house, which, according to neighbors, they were trying to help her remove after a pressure washer had failed to do so.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said the teen was arrested after officers reviewed surveillance video related to the incident and obtained a warrant to search the house, where they found items seen in the video, “along with other materials consistent with the crime.”
The boy was charged with criminal damage to property by defacing it with graffiti, criminal trespass, and hate crimes.
Family Faced Months of Hate Crimes
In their civil lawsuit, the family is asking to be financially compensated for “a pattern and practice of committing racially motivated acts against the woman and her family” and damages that include damage to property, mental pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
At a news conference held at her home on June 9, Morrison-Howard, her attorney, and her son also called for law enforcement and prosecutors to hold the parents to account for their son’s criminal conduct.
“For this type of imagery to still be used to invoke fear and to send a message cannot be tolerated,” said Ryan Thompson, the plaintiffs’ attorney, noting that under Louisiana law, “these repeated acts would be considered stalking and terrorism, which are crimes of violence. … When you’re talking about a minor, the parents have to be held accountable. And so if there’s any way under the law in which an individual can be held accountable for their kid’s actions, the family believes that charges should be looked at,” Thompson said.
Attorney Demands Accountability for Parents
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office has previously said no charges are expected to be brought against the parents in this case. Thompson also said he wants law enforcement to reconsider the terms under which it released the teen from juvenile detention as he awaits a court date later this month.
The teen’s bond was set at $45,000, with a condition requiring the teen to stay at his grandparents’ home.
If the repeated vandalism, trespassing and hate crimes were treated like a domestic violence case, he said, “an individual would not be released without any type of ankle monitor and any type of mental health evaluation. So we’re calling for law enforcement, including the district attorney’s office, to take a hard look at this again to make sure everyone in the community can feel safe.”
Wallace, who said he believes “the night the young man came over here in that outfit to spray paint what he painted on my mama’s house, he was being initiated into the Klansmen,” called on state leadership to get involved in the criminal case.
“So to Governor Jeff Landry, this is your time to show that you’re not with this ‘hug-a-thug’ policy that you say all the judges have. You’re not gonna hug a thug and let’s not kiss a Klansman,” Wallace said.
After a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in April that left six people shot, killing one, Landry said he was fed up with lenient juvenile court judges and “hug-a-thug policies” that have let repeat juvenile offenders be released too soon after committing violent crimes.
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