CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — An East Tennessee man has pleaded not guilty to soliciting another person to burn down a mosque in a small Muslim enclave in New York.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that 63-year-old Robert Doggart entered his plea during a Monday arraignment in a Chattanooga federal court.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse, demanding that Doggart, a resident of Sequatchie County and a 2014 congressional candidate, be charged with a hate crime and kept behind bars while he is tried.
Doggart agreed to plead guilty in April to a charge of plotting an attack that involved killing residents and burning at least three buildings in "Islamberg," a self-named community outside Hancock, New York. The plea agreement was thrown out by a federal judge in June.