Texas resident pleads guilty to federal hate crime and interstate threat charges, faces up to 15 years in prison. NEW JERSEY – A Dallas County man pleaded guilty to federal charges after threatening employees of a Sikh nonprofit organization with violence and death, Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna of the District of New Jersey and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kathleen Wolfe of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced. Bushan Athale, 49, of Dallas, Texas, admitted to one count of interfering with federally protected activities and one count of transmitting an interstate threat, both tied to hate-based and violent messages he directed toward individuals of the Sikh faith…