GREEN BAY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO BIAS-MOTIVATED CRIME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that Grant Heim, a 22-year-old Green Bay man, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with others to violate the civil rights of a mixed-race family in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In June of 1999, Heim and two accomplices drove to the victim’s home with the intent of intimidating the victims, a mixed-race couple and their son. When Heim arrived at the home, he verbally threatened the son. When the mother came to the boy’s aid, Heim threatened her with a baseball bat, swinging it toward her and knocking a mailbox off its post. He then stated that he did not like the color of her son’s skin, and threatened to return with a gun to shoot him. Later the same night, Heim drove through the family’s lawn, shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill members of the family.

“Today’s plea sends a clear message that bias-motivated acts of violence and intimidation are intolerable and will be prosecuted aggressively by the Justice Department,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Attacks such as this are attacks on the values we as a nation share. We will not relent in our efforts to protect and defend the civil rights of all Americans.”

The defendant faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Green Bay Police Department. It is being prosecuted by attorneys from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Prosecuting the perpetrators of bias-motivated crimes remains a top priority of the Justice Department. Since 2001, the Civil Rights Division has charged 110 defendants in 69 cases of bias-motivated crime.

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