Pennsylvania Man Charged for Threatening African-American Coworker with a Hangman’s Noose

PHILADELPHIA - Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker, and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Laurie Magid announced the filing of a one count criminal complaint charging William Gould with interference with employment by threat of violence, a Class A misdemeanor. The complaint alleges that Gould placed a hangman’s noose in an area where his African-American colleague would find it, in an attempt to interfere with his colleague’s federally protected employment activity, and because the colleague was African-American.

The complaint alleges that on Aug. 11, 2008, Gould fashioned and placed a hangman’s noose in a workspace at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he worked. Approximately two weeks earlier, Children’s Hospital had announced the acceptance of that African-American colleague into a management training program specifically focused on hiring and promoting minority employees. Gould, an electrician at Children’s Hospital, had reportedly complained about the program on numerous occasions to co-workers and to hospital executives, allegedly saying he found the program unfair. More...