Print edition: 
COUNCIL GROVE — Kenneth McClintock, a former municipal judge who now researches this town's complicated past, cringed when he heard someone doused a man with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire a couple weeks ago.
"That was even before we knew who the victim was," he said.
When word broke that it was Sterling Law, one of only a few black residents in this mostly white town of 2,200, and that the assailant had shouted racial slurs while terrorizing Law, it only got worse.
The race factor drew the attention of the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is investigating the violence to see whether it qualifies as a hate crime. And that drew regional media attention, bringing a spotlight to possible racism in a town that takes pride in its history as a meeting place for people with diverse backgrounds.
On paper, Council Grove has almost no record of racism in recent years. Only two complaints have been filed with the Kansas Human Rights Commission since 2003. Both dealt with possible discrimination at work, though the commission's reports don't elaborate. That puts Council Grove on par with many other small towns.
Council Grove police Sgt. Ray Fowler has worked in the area about 20 years, including roughly 10 with Council Grove police. He said Law's case is the first he's even heard of that alleges a racially motivated crime.
Police and the Morris County District Attorney's Office have shared few details about what happened early on Oct. 7. They say they're holding 23-year-old Isaac E. Wilson on $65,000 bond.
Wilson, who is previously from Council Grove, is charged with felony aggravated battery with intent to cause great bodily harm or disfigurement and aggravated burglary in connection with the incident at Law's house. He's also charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for violence against Andrew Maiden on the same day. Maiden lives several miles from Law's house, just outside the Council Grove city limits. The District Attorney's Office has said that investigators know of no link between the two attacks.
Law's brother, Glen, told The Eagle he and his brother are through with interviews after a bad experience with a TV station. But Sterling Law told the Manhattan Mercury that he awoke around 3 a.m. to Wilson, two other people and a pit bull in his house. Wilson was waving a machete and using racial slurs, and was apparently drunk, Law told the paper. Law said he tried to defend himself, but the pit bull bit him in the back. Then Law said Wilson cut his pants open and poured rubbing alcohol on him and set him on fire.
In the days after, Law called in sick to his job as a dishwasher and handyman at Hays House, a popular restaurant on Main Street.
"He never calls in," one of the restaurant's owners, Doug Wilkerson, said. Wilkerson went to check on Law, saw what had happened, and took him to the hospital.
Wilkerson knew that Law, 54, has a pending charge for possession of hallucinogenic drugs. But that doesn't outweigh the good will Law has shown decade after decade, Wilkerson said.
"I'd trust him with my 5-year-old," he said. "I can't say that for some of the other kids who have worked here."
Wilkerson stares coldly at even the question of whether Council Grove has racist elements. It does not, he said.
"Locally, I think it's a big deal," he said. "I think it would be a big deal whether he was black or white. People are talking as much about the kid who was bashed in the head."
But the city is rallying around Law.
Wilkerson pointed to a basket near the cash register with roughly 50 cards, most of which probably include money for the fund opened for Law at a local bank. "That's just from today," he said.
While many in the community seem focused on Law's recovery, members of the NAACP, some lawmakers, journalists and others are looking for more information and awaiting word from the U.S. Attorney's Office about whether this was a hate crime, just an awful crime where the victim says he was ridiculed with racist language, or something else entirely.
Jim Cross, spokesman for U.S. Attorney for Kansas Barry R. Grissom, said Friday the office is still investigating the case.
The Eagle requested an interview with Isaac Wilson. He declined, according to Chase County Jail Administrator Jay Whitney. (Chase Country regularly holds inmates for Morris County.) A preliminary hearing set for Oct. 24 was continued at the request of the defense to Nov. 18 at 10 a.m., according to Morris County Attorney Laura Allen.
The four charges stemming from Oct. 7 are not Wilson's first. He was charged with theft and criminal damage in 2009, drug possession in 2008, battery in 2007, racing on highways in 2006 and several other minor crimes in 2003, 2004 and 2005, according to Morris County records.
Gauging hate
In 2009, the most recent year available, the U.S. Department of Justice collected 63 reports from Kansas law agencies of race-based hate crime incidents, 18 of which occurred in Wichita. Nebraska had 47, Oklahoma logged 33 and Missouri reported 81.
Hate crimes are criminal acts against people, property or society that are motivated by the offender's bias against race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability.
But an offender's bias alone isn't enough. Law enforcement must find evidence that would lead a reasonable person to believe the suspect's actions were motivated by bias.
In addition to the 63 crimes based on race, the 2009 statistics for Kansas show 20 crimes based on ethnicity, 20 based on sexual orientation, 18 based on religion and one based on disability.
Nationally, gay, lesbian and transgender people are twice as likely to be attacked in a hate crime as African-Americans, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organization that tracks hate crimes.
Community reaction
Jasper, Texas, is perhaps the small town most linked to a hate crime.
In 1998, James Byrd Jr., who was black, accepted a ride home from a white man he knew and two other men. They drove him down a remote road, beat him and dragged him behind a truck for 3 miles. They dumped his remains in front of an African-American cemetery.
The crime made headlines around the world, prompted a hate crimes law in Texas and, later, was part of the impetus for a federal hate crimes act.
Jasper remained in the spotlight, and its residents pushed back against the notion that it was a racist community. About a year later, black and white residents tore down a fence that separated the white part of a cemetery and the black portion, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It's a much worse scenario than what happened in Council Grove, he said. But hate crimes tend to evoke discussion and, in some cases, force communities to confront old sentiments.
"What very often happens is that communities react very defensively to these types of things because they feel they're unfairly painted as a racist hotbed," Potok said. "It often exceeds what the town deserves, but often there is a real underlying problem of racism."
Waterville, a town of 680 people in northern Kansas, drew regional attention in 2007 when three young white men tied a black youth to a lawn chair in the early morning hours of a graduation party. They used racial slurs and urinated on him before spray painting his arms and legs white and telling him to go back to where he came from.
Three men were convicted in connection with the crime.
Tony Mann, a City Council member in Waterville, said it was a bad crime that may have been blown out of proportion.
"Community discussion, there wasn't a tremendous amount," he said. "It was unfortunate for sure. But I don't think it was an overwhelming thing for our community."
But he said it was difficult to see their town on the news.
"It made you feel bad that there's parts of the world that are talking about you in a way that's bad," he said. "But as far as the community goes, we're not racists of any sort. It just happened to be the wrong kids, some who maybe grew up a little bit rough."
"We got through it," he said. "And we hope it doesn't happen again."
Council Grove Mayor Cynthia Engle said the whole community seems saddened by what happened and that there has been an overwhelming effort to help Law.
Council Grove doesn't condone what happened and it isn't a racially biased community, she said.
"It's just not Council Grove for something like this to happen," she said. "You don't want to think that's going to happen anyplace."
