Federal authorities who gathered today in Indianapolis to highlight efforts to crack down on hate crimes pointed to a case out of Muncie as a reason for vigilance.

On Thursday, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced three men for their involvement in a cross-burning incident in July 2008 in the yard of an African-American family in Muncie. Richard LaShure, 41, received 15 months in prison and two years on probation; his son, Richard Logue, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison and two years on probation; and Aaron Latham, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison and three years on probation.

All three men were convicted on charges they conspired to violate civil rights and interfered with housing rights.

Thomas E. Perez, the assistant U.S. attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, hailed a recent expansion of the federal hate-crimes law. He attended the news conference at the U.S. attorney’s office in Indianapolis.

“Hate crimes are not simply about breaking bones,” Perez said. “They are about breaking the spirit of the community. … I’ve had that privilege, as I’ve said, to go into communities that have been torn apart by racial unrest, prosecuting bigots who have a cancer of the soul and want to divide our communities along racial and ethnic lines.”

Last month, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a bill adding violence motivated by sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to the 1969 federal hate crimes law, which already offered protections based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The law enables federal authorities to assist state and local investigations in such cases, though prosecutions may remain under state laws.

The recent bill greatly expanded the circumstances in which federal authorities can participate, removing the restriction that victims had to be engaged in federally protected activities, such as attending school or voting.

Indiana is one of five states with no state hate-crimes law. But Michael Welch, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Indianapolis, said his agents handle the fifth largest volume of hate-crimes investigations compared to offices of a similar size.

“The locals rely on us to take those cases,” Welch said.

He said more than 30 civil rights-related investigations were under way in Indiana.