Third man charged in cross-burning at family's home

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A former Giles County man is charged with burning a cross in front of an interracial family's home in Minor Hill.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, a federal grand jury in Nashville indicted Timothy Flanagan on Thursday on charges of conspiracy to violate housing rights, criminal interference with the right to fair housing and using fire to commit a federal felony.

Flanagan currently resides in Hudson, Florida. There was no phone number listed for him there, and a court spokesman said Flanagan does not yet have an attorney.

Two other men have previously pleaded guilty to constructing the cross in 2012 and burning it at the home of an interracial couple who had just had a baby. Timothy Stafford and Ivan "Rusty" London IV are scheduled to be sentenced in August.

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