Man chokes 11-year-old Black girl for playing ball in his driveway

A South Dakota man was sentenced to two years in prison for physically attacking Black children who were playing outside his house.

Larry Wayne Baldner, 74, started the confrontation after finding five children playing basketball in a driveway he shared with neighbors at his Fargo duplex home on Sept. 21, 2021, and he told them to leave his property, reported InForum.

An 11-year-old who lived next door to Baldner told police they were playing on her family's side of the sidewalk, according to a criminal complaint, but she said the man used a racial slur and slapped the child across the face.

The girl and her sister confronted Baldner, who then grabbed the 11-year-old by the neck and hair, lifted her off the ground and began choking her, according to the complaint.

The sister struck Baldner in the face and helped her get away, but the child's hair extension was ripped from her head, and the older man then hit the sister in the face.

“Baldner unnecessarily belittled the children by using racial epithets at the time of his attack,” wrote prosecutor Joshua Traiser in a sentencing brief asking for a two-year term. “A significant term of incarceration is necessary to hold Baldner accountable and to send a message that this court and this community takes racialized violence seriously.”

Defense attorneys asked the judge to sentence him to time served, which would amount to three days, and place him on 90 days of home incarceration, and they argued that one boy who had been present claimed the 11-year-old pushed Baldner, who denies using the racial slur.

The boy also told police one of the other boys threw a ball at Baldner, who he said grabbed the girl when she swung at him, and investigators said another adult stopped the girl from hitting the older man with a landscaping rock, but prosecutors said Baldner was unrepentant and called the charges against him a "crock" despite pleading guilty to aggravated assault, a Class C felony, and simple assault, a misdemeanor.

“Baldner repeatedly minimizes his own conduct and attempts to shift blame to the victims," Traiser wrote.