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Man Gets 10 Months in Federal Prison for Leaving Nooses and Harassing Starbucks Workers

Kenneth D. Pilon, 62, also left racist notes around Saginaw, Michigan, to stop people from supporting Black Lives Matter.

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A judge sentenced a Michigan man to 10 months in federal prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to two hate crime charges for intimidating and attempting to intimidate people protesting in support of Black Lives Matter.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington also sentenced Kenneth Pilon, 62, of Saginaw to one-year of supervised release.

Pilon was accused of calling nine Starbucks stores in Michigan and telling the employees answering his calls to relay racial threats to Starbucks employees wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts. Pilon also threatened to kill Black people, prosecutors said.

He allegedly left the messages two days after Starbucks announced in 2020 that it would provide 250,000 Black Lives Matter T-shirts to employees who wanted to wear them during their shifts amid protests condemning the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com.

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