Timothy Flanagan, 33, who authorities say recently moved from Giles County, Tenn., to Hudson, Fla., was expected to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Tampa after his arrest by deputy U.S. marshals and FBI agents.
After initial court proceedings in Florida, Flanagan will be returned to the Middle District of Tennessee where a grand jury in Nashville indicted him on Thursday on three counts.
The indictment charges Flanagan with one count of conspiracy to violate housing rights, one count of criminal interference with the right to fair housing, and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony.
The indictment alleges that on April 30, 2012, Flanagan conspired with others to threaten, intimidate, and interfere with an interracial coupleâs enjoyment of their housing rights in Minor Hill, Tenn.
While the indicted doesnât name the other defendants, earlier court proceedings have disclosed that Timothy Stafford and Ivan John Rutherford London IV also were involved in the same crime.
Both Stafford, 41, and London, 21, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate federal housing rights and are awaiting sentencing.
Court filings suggest both Stafford and London have cooperated with investigators in the hopes of getting lighter sentences if federal prosecutors agree to file âdownward departureâ recommendations before sentencing, now scheduled for August. That cooperation may have included testifying before the grand jury, which meets secretly, before it decided probable cause exists to indict Flanagan.
The indictment alleges that Flanagan and others conspired to âthreaten, intimidate, and interfere with an interracial coupleâs enjoyment of their housing rights in Minor Hill,â the Justice Department said in a press release.
Flanagan and two other individuals âdevised a plan to burn a cross in the yard of an interracial couple who had recently had a baby. The conspirators constructed a wooden cross, purchased diesel, fuel and then covered the cross in a diesel-fuel-soaked cloth.â
âThe conspirators then drove the cross to the victimsâ residence and placed the cross in the driveway and ignited it,â the press release said, adding: Â âFlanagan and his co-conspirators allegedly chose to burn the cross at the victimsâ house because of their race, as well as the race of their infant child.â