Family may be target of hate crime

FREWSBURG, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Southern Tier family says unrelenting harassment and racist remarks have made them feel like prisoners in their own home. And now police believe this same family may have become the target of a hate crime.

Spray painting someone else's house would normally be criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, but the words used in a Frewsburg crime, could make it a much more serious federal hate crime.

Amy Dale said, "This has to stop and I need help."

Dale believes her home in Frewsburg was targeted because her husband is black.

Dale said, "Got up this morning to take the kids to the dentist. We opened up our door and we saw a noose hanging from our front porch area. We come out even further and we find written on our house, it says the N-word Leave or Die, and a cross, and we have KKK written on our front yard on the driveway."

She's lived here for about three years, but just over the past six months she says her family has been verbally harassed.

Dale said, "If they can do this, what's next? They burn the house down with me and my husband and the kids in it. I mean, they're not playing fair anymore."

Chautauqua County Sheriff Joseph Gerace said, "Well, this is very disturbing, something that we don't have much of in this county. It's a case that was taken very seriously."

The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office met for hours with FBI agents Monday afternoon about it.

Sheriff Gerace said, "We have people assigned to the case and we'll continue to follow it through until hopefully we can come to a satisfactory end."

Dale said, "I don't know off hand who would've done it, but there is one couple that really, really want to see us outta here."

Dale says she's also had what she calls inconveniences over the past six months, "The building inspector, the dog pound, the Town of Carroll Police."

Just over the weekend she says someone shouted a racial slur at her husband, but he ended up getting arrested after being accused of kicking the man's car.

Dale said, "It's a bunch of garbage and we're tired of it."

Dale has already contacted the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Civil Rights attorney David Jay about the case. It will be up to the FBI to determine if it fits the Federal Hate Crime Statute.