Defendant Pleads Guilty To Hate Crime Against Mosque Playground

A Department of Justice press release reports that yesterday in a Fort Worth, Texas federal district court, Henry Clay Glaspell pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge growing out of his setting fire to playground equipment at an Arlington, Texas mosque.  The arson was part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at persons associated with the mosque who were of Arab or Middle Eastern descent. Glaspell also admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs. Sentencing is set for July 11.