A UW-Madison freshman charged in a hate crime in December saw reduced charges Tuesday after a Dane County assistant district attorney dismissed a count of criminal damage to property.
Michael Riha, charged in a Dec. 21 incident in Ogg Hall, no longer faces felony charges after Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Hayward dropped the criminal damage charge, according to his lawyer, William Ginsberg.
We're glad that the district attorney saw fit to dismiss one count and we will continue to defend the cases on the other counts and hopefully we'll have a successful and appropriate resolution of all these cases,\ Ginsberg said.
The criminal complaint cited Riha, along with UW-Madison freshmen Benjamin Chamberlain and two other students from other universities.
Normally, Ginsberg said, a criminal damage to property conviction is a class A misdemeanor and could have cost Riha up to nine months in jail or a $10,000 fine. Since the charge was classified as a hate crime, it carried a heavier sentence, which converted that charge to a felony.
The criminal complaint alleged Riha, along with the other participants, defaced the door and bulletin board of a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender liaison in Ogg Hall.
Ginsberg said his client did not engage in any of the ""more serious behavior"" such as writing on the victim's door but said according to the evidence, the incident fits into the definition of a hate crime.
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