By DON LEHMAN dlehman@poststar.com The Post-Star |

Posted: Monday, August 30, 2010

QUEENSBURY — A Glens Falls man who was accused of threatening to hang a black man with a noose has been indicted by a Warren County grand jury on enhanced charges that allege the incident was a hate crime.

George M. Allen, 31, faces felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon and menacing and a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment in the Aug. 10 incident on Fredella Avenue in Glens Falls.

He is accused of approaching 22-year-old Toi Rucker with a rope fashioned into a noose and telling him, “This is what I’m going to hang your black ass with,” court records show.

Rucker had been involved in an argument with a relative at a neighboring home minutes earlier, and had been asked to leave the home. The woman with whom he argued went to Allen’s home after the disagreement, and minutes later Allen approached Rucker on the street with the noose and what appeared to be a knife in his other hand, police records show.

Police initially charged Allen with a felony weapons charge and misdemeanor menacing, but the grand jury filed an enhanced menacing count under the state hate crime law.

The hate crime charge alleges the incident was motivated “in whole or substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding race (or) color” of the victim, according to the indictment.

Allen is being represented by the Warren County Public Defender’s Office. Public Defender John Wappett could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Filed in Warren County Court, though, was a letter from Assistant Public Defender Bryan Racino in which Racino asked Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan to call three Fredella Avenue residents who, he says, witnessed the episode and could testify Allen was not guilty as charged.

“This exculpatory testimony places the defendant in another location and not participating in the events which form the basis of the charges,” Racino wrote.

It was unclear whether those residents testified before the grand jury. Grand jury proceedings are secret by law.

Allen, who is being held in Warren County Jail without bail, will be arraigned Wednesday before Warren County Judge John Hall. He is being held without bail because he has two prior felony convictions.

He could face up to 11 years in prison if convicted of the felonies.

http://poststar.com/news/local/2713aa08-b45a-11df-80cf-001cc4c002e0.html