Matthew Gregg, who in February became the first person in Delaware convicted of a felony hate crime by the state’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust, has been sentenced to four months in prison followed by probation, a court ruled on July 1.
He will also be required to complete community service, anger management, and mental health and substance abuse counseling, according to the Department of Justice.
The 27-year-old from Hockessin was arrested on Dec. 10, 2020 on charges of harassment and terroristic threatening. According to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal, Gregg called a Black female employee in Gov. John Carney’s office 160 times between Nov. 20 and Dec. 10, 2020.
In these calls, Gregg targeted the woman with racist and sexist slurs, including the N-word, court documents say.
BACKGROUND:How 160 racist, sexist calls to Gov. Carney’s employee resulted in a hate crime conviction
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. In the department’s message to the judge, Deputy Attorney General Nicole Mozee called Gregg’s harassment “intentional, abhorrent and targeted.”
“People with prejudicial beliefs who do discriminatory things do not experience a temporary lapse in judgment but formulate an ingrained belief system over time,” Mozee said.
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She wrote that Gregg was upset about the COVID-19 mandates Carney put in place, as they limited his work hours. However, she said none of his calls to the governor’s secretary actually protested the mandates.
While the Department of Justice acknowledged that Gregg had a “minimal” criminal history and accepted responsibility for his actions, not sentencing him to time in prison “unduly depreciates the severity of the offense.” It would also ignore the wider historical context of racism and sexism, “which has been emboldened in recent years.”
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“No one deserves to live in fear for their lives under the duress of constant harassment and threatening,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings in a statement Friday.
Anyone who wants to file a complaint with the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust can submit a form online at attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/publictrust/complaint-form, call the division at (302) 577-5400 or email a representative at publictrust@delaware.gov.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
