Post by jenrik2714 on Jun 30, 2006 13:03:00 GMT -6
Incident Happened In Madison, Wisc.
(Naperville Sun) MADISON, Wis. The last of four men arrested last year for their roles in an anti-gay hate crime at the University of Wisconsin at Madison was sentenced Thursday for his part in that incident.
Michael D. Riha, 19, of Naperville's northwest side, pleaded guilty Thursday in Dane County, Wis., Circuit Court to a misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer, according to court records. Companion charges of felony criminal damage to property and misdemeanor disorderly conduct with a hate crime enhancement had been dismissed prior to Thursday's plea.
A judge ordered Riha to enroll in the Dane County district attorney's First Offenders Program, court records showed. Program participants agree to follow the orders of an overseeing committee, with those who fail to do so subject to penalties of up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Riha and three other men -- Benjamin T. Chamberlain, Caleb M. Moore and Kevin R. Sochacki -- were indicted in January for participating in a December incident directed at a gay male student on the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus.
University police said the four men socialized and drank alcoholic beverages in Riha's dorm room before vandalizing a bulletin board that informed students of services provided by the school's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender organization.
They also were accused of shouting profane threats outside the dorm room of a student liaison to that group and damaging the dry-erase message board on his front door, police said.
Moore, Riha and Sochacki are 2005 graduates of Waubonsie Valley High School. Chamberlain is from Crystal Lake.
Sochacki, 18, and Moore, 19, were enrolled in the First Offender's Program after pleading guilty April 27 to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct with a hate crime enhancement. Sochacki is from Naperville's Buttonwood area, while Moore is a former Naperville resident now living in Alabama.
Chamberlain, 19, was ordered to participate in the program March 22, after pleading guilty to the same charge Moore and Sochacki had faced.