Federal authorities looking into cemetery vandalism

(Tulsa-AP) -- Federal authorities are looking into the recent vandalism of 93 Jewish headstones adorned with the Star of David and Hebrew inscriptions at a Tulsa cemetery.

U-S Attorney Steve Lewis says federal hate crime charges are possible against two suspects in the case.

Lewis said yesterday the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has been consulted about the August 25th vandalism.

Jonathan Brian Duke and Dillon Bell were arraigned yesterday for violation of Oklahoma's hate crime law -- a misdemeanor that carries a prison stretch of no more than a year.

Lewis says the federal hate crime law carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison upon conviction.

Duke and Bell were also arraigned on 89 misdemeanor counts of injury to a gravestone or monument and one count of felony malicious injury to property.