Former LSU student fined for racist e-mail, bomb threat
January 4, 2001
A judge fined a former LSU student $6,000 Wednesday for sending racially offensive e-mail to a black classmate and threatening to blow up her car.
State District Judge Don Johnson also placed Spencer T. Wong on probation and ordered him to seek counseling and complete an African-American studies class.
The money from the fines will got to area schools and the Baton Rouge AIDS Society.
Johnson told Wong that nothing is more offensive than racial discrimination.
"Mr. Wong, I don't know if you're racist or not," Johnson said. "It appears to be you have tendencies which suggest that people of darker hue are less than you, and I want to say to you that they are not."
Wong, 20, pleaded no contest in October to communication of false information of planned arson, hate crimes and stalking.
A no-contest plea means he doesn't agree with or oppose the facts of the case. It has the same effect as a guilty plea in criminal court, but can't be used as an admission of guilt in civil court.
Wong's attorney, John McLindon, said Wednesday that Wong has undergone anger management counseling.
McLindon said he advised Wong to say little in court because of an unresolved civil lawsuit filed against him by the victim.
"I think I can say safely that some of the things you just said, that Mr. Wong has learned that," McLindon told the judge.
Wong now lives in New York.
Wong allegedly sent the hate mail while taking classes at LSU earlier this year.
The victim, a black woman, was a classmate in a computer science lab course.
Prosecutor Brenda O'Neal has said the woman received a series of threatening e-mails in February.
The messages are in the court record.
One message said, "I hate niggers. That means I hate you."
Another e-mail urged the victim to transfer to Southern University. The message went on to describe the victim's car and said, "I putta (sic) bomb there, so just get ready."
Campus police traced the e-mails to Wong after receiving a complaint from the victim.
O'Neal has said Wong either used his own accounts or accessed someone else's to send the e-mail.
MICHELLE MILLHOLLON, The Advocate ONLINE