Prosecutors report a hate crime case in Muscatine is progressing, with two former Kansans being sent to a federal prison for their role in a bar fight.
The case dates back to December of 2007. Three men and a woman were accused of getting involved in two different fights with two black men who were at the Canterbury Pub in the Econolodge in Muscatine. Witnesses say racial slurs were used and four people started attacking one of the black men as he sat at the bar.
After the bartender and another customer got the first fight under control, the four people went after a second black man who was in the back of the bar by a pool table.
Two of the people involved in the melees have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in late August. This week, Jeffery Thomas Lee was sentenced to nearly four years in prison and Wendie Kay Groen has been sentenced to just under three years.
All four have admitted the two men were attacked because they were black.