Florida woman pleads guilty to lying about placing Confederate flag on black co-worker's desk

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman accused of placing a Confederate flag on a black co-worker's desk has pleaded guilty to lying to a federal officer.

U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley said Tuesday that 58-year-old Susan Thompson faces a possible five-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors say Thompson placed an image of the flag on the desk of a co-worker with whom she'd had a contentious relationship at their Jacksonville office for the Army Corps of Engineers. That was in June, one week after nine people were killed at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Dylann Roof, a white man who posed with the flag for photos, is charged.

Prosecutors say that during interviews over the Jacksonville incident, Thompson lied to investigators twice.

Thompson later resigned and has admitted to placing the flag. She denied it was racially motivated.