By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

BURLINGTON - Whoever set a cross ablaze in a black family's front yard could face 10 years in a federal prison.

"Cross-burning has such a strong, visceral, insidious symbolism to it, we take it very seriously," said U.S. Attorney Gregory Van Tatenhove. "We certainly would consider moving forward in prosecuting the appropriate case."

The FBI, with the help of the Boone County Sheriff's Department, is investigating the cross-burning as a possible hate crime. Frederick Mahone moved his family after he found a 3-foot-tall charred cross on the lawn of the home he rented and windows broken in his car the following day.

While the U.S. Justice Department has charged 46 people in 29 cross-burnings across the nation since 2001, none has been in Northern Kentucky, said Van Tatenhove, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky since September 2001. FBI officials say they are not investigating any other hate crimes in Northern Kentucky.

The last cross-burning prosecuted under federal civil rights laws resulted in an Indianapolis man getting an 18-month prison sentence on June 15. Jerry Dean Landis pleaded guilty to participating in the building and burning of a cross in the front yard of a black family in July 2000 in Indianapolis.

He admitted that he and others took part in the cross-burning in order to "send a message" to the family.

Tatenhove said one factor federal officials would consider before prosecuting a cross-burning would be whether the suspects were juveniles.

"We often find juveniles are involved in these types of cases," he said. "We often defer to state prosecutors when juveniles are involved. They are rarely prosecuted in federal courts."

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bill O'Leary said he couldn't comment on the Boone County incident because it is still under investigation.

"We have been in contact with the Boone County Sheriff's Department," said Jerome Bowles, president of the Northern Kentucky chapter of the NAACP. "We will monitor the case, keep in contact with the family, visit the site and speak with Boone County Fiscal Court."

He said the chapter wants to make sure people are aware that such incidents occur. He said government officials must take them seriously and send a strong message that racial intimidation is unacceptable.

Van Tatenhove said the cross-burning reminds him of a case his office prosecuted last year in Covington.

Four Covington residents, including three with links to white supremacists, were sentenced to prison for terrorizing a black mother and her teenage children, ultimately driving them from their home.

As part of a plea agreement reached in February 2003, the three men admitted engaging in a yearlong "campaign of terror" against a woman and her children.

From spring 2001 to spring 2002, prosecutors say, the white family and two friends violated the black family's federal civil rights through repeated, racially motivated intimidation. Gloria Powell and her children endured racial slurs, Nazi salutes, threats, broken windows and lights, and an attack with a baseball bat, authorities said.

The Covington case was prosecuted under the same federal laws that the cross-burning case could be if the Boone County incident turns out to be racially motivated, as suspected, Van Tatenhove said.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com