U.S. District Judge Gretchen Lund on Wednesday sentenced a Whiting man to 10 months in federal prison after he threatened a neighboring interracial family — and their landlord — until they moved out.
Brian O’Neill, 46, signed a plea deal in April in U.S. District Court in Hammond on two counts of race-based interference with housing and one count of making false statements to law enforcement, U.S. Attorney Clifford Johnson said in a statement. He will also serve a two-year sentence on supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas McGrath wrote that O’Neill targeted the family from the day they moved there in June 2022.
It was a “campaign of hate,” he wrote, against the couple and their five children.
In court filings, O’Neill’s defense attorney, Kerry Connor, requested that the time served be due to the payment of money to the family.
O’Neill remained in prison for more than six months where he “had time to seriously reflect on his ignorant, offensive and illegal conduct,” she wrote. He wanted to “seek help for what he recognized as his abhorrent behavior.”
Records show O’Neill yelled at the mother, a woman of color, that day, saying he had warned his landlord about renting to “people like her,” according to the documents. O’Neill later clarified that he was talking about his race.
Strange things happened in the following months.
Their vehicles had unexplained dents and scratches. O’Neill would yell at them without provocation. Someone left a “rotten pumpkin” on their common property line.
When the woman’s partner removed it, their car was locked the next day.
He got into an argument with O’Neill in June 2023, because O’Neill thought they were starting to invade his parking space. O’Neill threatened to rape the man and his family, according to court filings.
The family called the cops.
When police arrived, they noted that O’Neill was “erratic” and angry, saying he had the right to stand his ground in front of police. O’Neill told them he had no criminal record because he “manages his (expletive) silence,” according to the documents.
The police left without arresting him.
Afterward, O’Neill told neighbors he was “untouchable” and “could do anything he wanted,” McGrath wrote.
McGrath noted an unrelated incident caught on video in 2022 in which O’Neill threatened to “(spoil)” another driver and his family who were looking for a place to park in very crowded Whiting.
A child’s birthday party seemed to tip the scales for the family.
When they had a backyard party in July 2023, the mother quickly told a relative to move out when she realized they parked in front of O’Neill’s house.
Despite this, O’Neill still hurled racial slurs at her, telling the woman to “leave Whiting,” according to the documents. It was loud enough for the family and a young girl to hear it, the woman said.
The family called the police again and posted the video on social media.
A few days later, the woman’s partner went out and discovered that someone had smashed the window of his truck. They decided to move the children and planned a community rally against what had happened.
This included hiring a security consultant.
The police went to speak to O’Neill to try to calm him down. They told him about the gathering.
In response, O’Neill followed the family’s landlord, threatening him, adding that he was renting to “a low-level trash (racial slur).”
O’Neill was yelling in the security consultant’s face and had to be physically removed from him, according to the filings.
A few days later, someone came and broke the couple’s window with a hammer. They decided to move, while paying the landlord for the two months he was not renting, because they were very afraid of O’Neill’s actions.
mcolias@post-trib.com
