Delaware man convicted of hate crime gets 4 months in prison
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A Delaware man convicted earlier this year of a felony hate crime for what authorities say was the persistent harassment of a Black female employee in Gov. John Carney's office has been sentenced to four months in prison.
Matthew Gregg will also be required to complete community service, anger management, and mental health and substance abuse counseling, the News Journal reported Friday.
The 27-year-old Hockessin man was arrested on Dec. 10, 2020, on charges of harassment and terroristic threatening. According to court documents, Gregg called the receptionist in Carney's office 160 times between Nov. 20 and Dec. 10, 2020. In those calls, Gregg targeted the woman with racist and sexist slurs, according to court documents.
Gregg also threatened to kill the receptionist and throw a brick at the governor’s head, according to the Department of Justice’s sentencing memorandum.
Deputy Attorney General Nicole Mozee wrote that Gregg was upset about COVID-19 mandates Carney put in place but none of his calls to the governor’s secretary actually protested those mandates.
The Department of Justice argued that not sentencing Gregg to time in prison would unduly depreciate "the severity of the offense.”