UPDATE: Alpharetta Man Indicted For Hanging Noose at Ole Miss

Editor’s note: the story has been updated to include a statement from Harris’s attorney.

An Alpharetta man has been indicted on charges he allegedly vandalized a statue of the first African-American to attend Ole Miss.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Graeme Phillip Harris was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African American students because of their race or color.

Court records show Harris, an Alpharetta resident, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday, March 25 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

According to the Department of Justice’s press release, Harris “conspired with others to use the cover of darkness to hang a rope and an outdated version of the Georgia state flag, which prominently depicts the Confederate battle flag, around the neck of the James Meredith statue on the campus of the University of Mississippi, with the intent to threaten and intimidate African-American students and employees at the university.”

The statue honors Meredith as the first black student to enroll at the institution after its “contentious” integration in 1962, the federal agency said. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2014.

Attorney General Eric Holder said this alleged “shameful and ignorant act is an insult to all Americans and a violation of our most strongly-held values.”

“No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are,” he added. “By taking appropriate action to hold wrongdoers accountable, the Department of Justice is sending a clear message that flagrant infringements of our historic civil rights will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an Ole Miss spokesperson confirmed Harris withdrew from the university once he was identified as a suspect. The AJC also reports Harris was a freshman at the time of the incident and two other Georgia men were also identified as suspects.

Oxford, Mississippi-based lawyer David Hill, the attorney representing Harris, said the “wrong man” was indicted in connection to the February 2014 incident. He noted the three Georgia teenagers, “after a night of binge drinking in a university fraternity house, engaged in alcohol-fueled conduct that was foolish, insensitive and offensive.”

Hill stated that only his client was “selected for prosecution and (an) insensitive investigation,” as he was the only one of three to have his cell and computer seized and his vehicle, dorm room and his family’s home all searched by the FBI.

He alleges the other two suspects have “received federal forgiveness,” and have not been subjected to the investigation Harris is undergoing. He also said DOJ’s allegations that Harris tied the rope around the neck of the statue are “patently untrue.”

Hill states the student who allegedly admitted to placing the noose on Meredith’s statue was not indicted.

“Though Graeme’s presence at such an insensitive event was a serious lack of judgment, he has physically injured no one,” Hill said. “He did not intend to threaten, intimidate, or oppress any single individual or group. He did not understand the ramifications of his actions as anything beyond a drunken prank. In order to convict him, the law requires that Graeme have intent to injure, intimidate, oppress, or threaten, which he did not. Graeme Harris is not guilty of the government’s criminal charges brought against him, and in spite of the certainty expressed in the DOJ press release on Friday and the multitude of news sources since, the American public should remember that Graeme Harris is only accused and not convicted, and conviction requires evidence, not press releases.”

Court records show a jury trial has been set for May 18 before U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Jackson, Mississippi, Division’s Oxford Resident Agency and the University of Mississippi Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Mississippi.