The trial of a Connecticut man on sexual assault charges has taken a bizarre turn ^[1] into a constitutional debate. John McGowan, a former mayoral candidate and public access TV host, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a game of strip poker. McGowan said he was a member of the “sovereign citizen” group Republic for the united States, which rejects the U.S. government as illegitimate.

Police in Ventura County, Calif., have arrested ^[2] a man for a hate crime and assault with a deadly weapon. Patrick Fitzgerald, 24, allegedly called people derogatory racial slurs, and then got into a fight with another man, which led to a third bystander getting punched.

A Billings, Mont., resident was sentenced ^[3] to three years in prison for a hate crime. Jason Lee Paullin, 35, earlier pleaded guilty to malicious intimidation for threatening an African-American man with his dog, chasing him, and yelling racial slurs at him.