I think one reason it’s so unintelligible is that the author is trying to hide the fact that the perp is black and that it was a hoax hate crime. If the author had just written that up-front, some of the rest of it would have made more sense.
It’s another example of the stupidity that follows from political correctness. It makes a feller want to weep for the dumbing down that has taken place.
sounds like the judge handed down a pretty stiff sentence, and she is pretty liberal.