WASHINGTON — The two young men previously charged with sneaking onto the roof of Crofton Middle School and hanging a noose have now been charged with hate crimes.
Charles Prout, 19 and John Havermann, 19, were originally charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and disturbing school operations.
Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams has now added two misdemeanor hate counts to each suspect’s charges.
Earlier, police had told WTOP that no note was left at the scene, as they investigated a possible motive in leaving the noose.
In a statement, Adams said the hate crime counts were added “after evaluating the sufficiency of the underlying evidence regarding the noose.”
On May 11, a teacher spotted the noose, which was immediately taken down by a custodian.
