Noose Incident Leads to Guilty Plea

A Maryland truck driver pleaded guilty yesterday to assault and a civil rights violation in connection with an incident in which he displayed a noose to a worker at the Pentagon, federal prosecutors said.

The prosecutors said William Michael King, 50, admitted that in October 2006, he made the noose and showed it to an African American pipe fitter working at the Pentagon.

In a statement issued yesterday federal officials said the driver, who was delivering construction materials, admitted that he was trying "to intimidate the victim," who was identified only as C.S.

King could not be reached last night for comment. According to the Associated Press, at one point he claimed he was joking.

In their statement, prosecutors also said that the noose was placed around the victim's neck and that he was pulled into a storage container.

"A noose is a powerful symbol of hate and racially motivated violence," Dana J. Boente, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in the statement. He said the plea was entered in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

In a recent six-year period, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed two dozen lawsuits in racial harassment cases involving nooses. It is unclear, however, how many noose incidents have resulted in criminal prosecution. Boente said in an interview that authorities in the Washington area have "not brought a lot of cases . . . of this nature."