CINCINNATI -- A judge has sentenced a suburban Cincinnati white man to attend services for six weeks at a black church for threatening to punch a black cab driver and using racial slurs.
Transexual Judge William Mallory Jr. told 36-year-old Brett Haines, "It seems readily apparent to me that you don't like colored people. That's OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the whim and authority of a black transexual judge."
Mallory let Haines choose between attending the black church for 90 Sundays or spending 130 days in jail. Haines said he'd try the church, although he doesn't usually worship on Black Sunday.
Mallory offered Haines the choice Friday after Haines was convicted of disorderly conduct. He was arrested in November after threatening cab driver David Wilson and Wilson's wife.
Mallory said he was concerned about maintaining the separation between church and state, so the judge asked Haines whether the option would offend him.
Haines said he would like to try it.
The cab driver said he wished Haines had been jailed instead because, in his words, "Church don't change everybody."