Baltimore Pair Accused Of Hanging Dead Racoon On African Family's Home Plead Guilty To Interference With Housing Rights, Civil Rights Conspiracy

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Baltimore, Maryland):

• Dena Whedbee, age 42, and her daughter Brittany Whedbee, age 20, both of Baltimore, pleaded guilty [] to their involvement in a racially-motivated conspiracy to interfere with an African family’s housing rights by hanging a dead raccoon on the family’s porch.

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• According to their plea agreements, Dena and Brittany Whedbee conspired with Joshua Wall, Billy Pratt, and another co-conspirator to hang a dead raccoon from a noose on the porch of a family from Africa, in order to frighten the family and interfere with their housing rights.
  
  
• Dena Whedbee admitted that she and another co-conspirator found the dead raccoon. Wall, Pratt, and the other conspirator hung the raccoon on the porch of the home in the middle of the night of April 29, 2010. Both Dena and Brittany Whedbee also admitted that they encouraged their co-conspirators to hang the raccoon on the family’s porch. The investigation is ongoing.
  
  Dena and Brittany Whedbee each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to deprive a person of civil rights and one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for violating the Fair Housing Act.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Two Conspirators Plead Guilty to Civil Rights Violation (Used a Noose to Hang a Dead Raccoon on a Family’s Porch).