A pair of white post Hurricane Katrina construction workers were each sentenced to two years’ probation Monday for beating up a black man outside a bar in 2006, District Attorney Walter Reed spokesman Rick Wood said.

Originally charged with felony second-degree battery and a hate crime for beating Craig Brown on Oct. 21 because of his race, Danny Griffin and David Owen, both 35, were convicted of the lesser misdemeanor simple battery charge April 17.

A six-person jury, including four men, one who was black, and two women, deliberated for roughly two hours before delivering the felony acquittal. The jury found racism did not fuel the attack on Brown, 42. Folsom Police reports originally indicated the pair were overheard talking about beating any black or Mexican man at first sight, fodder for the hate crime charge. The pair, friends since 15 from Flint, Mich., had recently moved to Folsom while performing construction work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when the brawl erupted outside of Daiquiri Barn on the corner of Louisiana Highways 40 and 24. The friends were celebrating Owen’s last night in Louisiana before he moved back to his hometown of Bethpage, Tenn.

When they left the bar and tried to drive away, a scuffle erupted with Brown. Taking the stand in his own defense, Griffin testified Brown reached through the pair’s truck window and grabbed Griffin by the back of the neck, leaving hand welts.

Owen was charged, in part, with holding Brown down as Griffin punched and kicked Brown in a ditch outside the bar.

State Judge Donald Fendlason, who issued the sentence and presided over the trial, allowed Owen to report to his St. Tammany probation officer via phone from Tennessee, Wood said. Each man faces up to six months in jail if they violate Fendlason’s probation sentence, Wood said. In addition, each man will pay a $500 fine, plus court costs, he said.