Andrew King, of Schenectady, N.Y., man has admitted to police that he spray painted swastikas on his own house and reported it as a hate crime.
via NYDN:
Andrew King reportedly pleaded guilty last week to misdemeanor charges for falsely reporting an incident.
He’ll do three years of probation for the crime, according to the Times Union. He’s set to stand before a judge on Oct. 24 for sentencing.
King, 54, reported the alleged hate crime on Feb. 10. He claimed, at the time, that his home was vandalized.
Police arrested him just over a month later for lying about the incident, according to the Times Union.
The outlet reported that King’s allegations came amid a spree of hate-related crimes in the Schenectady area.
“A falsely reported hate crime is in one sense as bad as a real crime,” Robert Carney, the Schenectady County District Attorney, said in a statement to the Times Union.
“It stigmatizes a group of people, increases fear and tensions, and could encourage real copycat crimes. Mr. King put our community on edge in perpetrating this hoax and we hope this deposition will provide him some needed supervision and assistance.”
Neither the Schenectady Police Department nor the District Attorney’s office returned the Daily News’ request for comment.
Andrew didn’t have anything better to do? That’s sad.
