A white man has been sentenced to five years in prison for attacking a Black teenager with a bike lock because of his race at a southeastern Michigan park. A judge in Detroit federal court on Thursday also ordered 43-year-old Lee Mouat, of Newport, to serve three years of supervised release.
Mouat pleaded guilty in March to a federal hate crime after he was accused of striking then-18-year-old Devin Freelon Jr. with a bike lock on June 6, 2020.
Authorities have said Mouat confronted a group of Black teens at Sterling State Park beach in Monroe County's Frenchtown Township, about 39 miles southwest of Detroit. He repeatedly used racial slurs and said Black people had no right to use the beach.