SALEM, Ore. — A Marion County man will spend time in custody and face years of supervision after pleading guilty to bias crimes stemming from repeated racial harassment and threats against a neighbor and her family.
Marion County Circuit Court Judge James Edmonds this week sentenced Richard Pennise, 52, to two months in the Department of Corrections and 36 months of supervised probation. Pennise pleaded guilty to three counts of Bias Crime in the First Degree, a Class C felony, according to a news release from the Marion County District Attorney’s Office.
The incident occurred in May of this year after Gervais Police Chief Robert Morris responded to a complaint at a Gervais home. The victim reported that her neighbor, Pennise, had repeatedly directed racial slurs at her and her family and threatened to kill all of them. The conduct had been occurring on a nearly daily basis, with such severity that the victim kept her younger children from playing outside when Pennise was home, the release said…