By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Four juveniles who admitted burning a cross at an Oxford Township residence received probation and an unusual punishment Thursday.

Butler County Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus ordered the boys, ages 14 to 16, to keep journals on all contact with minorities, then write a paper about their experiences and give an oral presentation on it to the court on Oct. 20, 2003. He also ordered them to undergo victim-offender mediation and diversity training.

They also have to donate $200 to the Oxford Tolerance Fund, pay court costs and reimburse their parents for any attorneys' fees. Further, the judge suspended their drivers' licenses - or right to apply for them - while they remain on probation.

The teens were charged with ethnic intimidation by way of criminal damaging or endangering, and aggravated trespass. They were arrested earlier this month after Robert LeGesse reported charred remains of a wooden cross in his front yard on Stillwell-Beckett Road on Oct. 20. Mr. LeGesse, who is white, has biracial children. Authorities said they think that is why his home was targeted.

"Their criminal conduct was so intolerable, so destructive and so symbolic of evil that I could understand where one might feel strongly that their punishment should have also been more symbolic," said Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper. He said the journal and paper-writing assignment probably was intended "to try to rid them of ignorance and bias."

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com