Almost six months after 9 members of an historically black church were gunned down in South Carolina, a former employee of the Army Corps of Engineers pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to Federal officers about her role in an incident at her workplace revolving around a Confederate Flag. The woman, 58 year old Susan Thompson, and her co-worker, a black woman, were often at odds with each other, and had a history of loud confrontations in the workplace. About a week after the shooting in South Carolina, the black woman came to work to find an image of a Confederate Flag on her desk. After the incident was reported, the Federal Protective Service opened an investigation into the incident to see if the image was a real threat, or if any federal crimes had been committed.
Thompson was questioned several times by investigators and each time denied leaving the Flag on her co-worker’s desk. Eventually, she did admit to leaving the flag, but denied the incident was racially motivated. Thomson later resigned from the Army Corps of Engineers in lieu of termination. Prosecutors in the case say Thompson could face up to five years in prison for lying to federal investigators over the incident.
