ALBANY — Disgraced ex-lawyer James J. Hennessey was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum 1 to 3 years in prison for tormenting his black neighbors with racist phone calls, but not before a judge blasted him for comparing the menacing calls to a "teenage prank thing" he learned from watching television.

"Your hate crimes were repeated to various victims," Judge Stephen Herrick told Hennessey, 59, of Winnie Street, moments before sentencing him for a series of threatening phone calls to victims in 2010. "You terrorized them. You terrorized aspects of your neighborhood, of the community, of the city of Albany."

The judge rejected a probation officer's report suggesting Hennessey receive a split sentence of less jail time and probation. He questioned the remorse of Hennessey, who resigned Feb. 1 from his $104,080-a-year job at the state Department of Civil Service.

The judge said Hennessey told the probation officer: "It was almost like a teenage prank thing. I saw how to do it on TV. I made a quick prank call, then a couple of weeks later I did it again. Shortly thereafter, I got carted off."

Hennessey, a Bronx native and one-time New York City police officer, initially faced 11 counts of second-degree aggravated harassment — charges changed to hate crime felonies because of their racist nature.

He pleaded guilty to two counts in February to resolve the case.

On Wednesday, Hennessey told the judge he didn't realize the impact of his calls at the time, but does now.

"I hate no one," Hennessey said, highlighting his work for an affirmative action program. "I've always considered people of any race my friend and I generally have a very open personality toward anyone. I have a lot of remorse for what was done."

Victims described how his hateful calls drove them to fear even leaving their home.

"Do you know how it feels to know that you are being watched by someone who has nothing but pure hatred for you and your family all because of the color of your skin?" stated a letter from Nancy Williams of Albany. It was read aloud in court by Assistant District Attorney Linda Griggs.

Williams stated her family had to install a six-foot stockade fence to be able to sit in the yard without fear of being stalked.

"Myself and my fiancee were harassed, intimidated, terrorized, emotionally and psychologically affected by the acts of James Hennessey," another victim, Sean Brown of Albany, told the judge.

Brown, 39, and his fiancee, Dana Henson, 28, had not been in their Pine Hills home a month when Hennessey began harassing them in July 2010.

Brown said he soon was not sure if his tormentor might toss a brick into his home or burn a cross on his property.

"The acts of James Hennessey caused mental intimidation where I didn't know if I should take action into my own hands," he said. "Should I purchase a gun? ... Can I get to the phone fast enough? Can the police get here fast enough to protect me and my family?"

Henson said she and Brown had just activated a new phone when it rang.

"I never imagined what would be on the other end when I picked up," she said, recalling the caller yelled racial and sexist slurs and made references to kidnapping, ransom and property values. He also told them to move out. "We experienced these hate-filled calls for weeks ... I felt unsafe in my own home. I didn't trust my neighbors."

Henson, who teaches at a local college, noted Hennessey's law work involved the protection of equal opportunities for all.

"He's a true coward," she said. "I think living amongst hard-working people from diverse backgrounds is far more desirable than bunking in a jail. Perhaps he didn't think of that before he started harassing us."

Between May 2010 and July 2010, Hennessey made upward of 200 phone calls to 38 recipients through a website — http://www.bluffmycall.com — which allowed him to block his phone number. At times he made it appear on victims caller ID that his calls were coming from the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas.

Prosecutors say Hennessey also phoned real estate agents warning them not to rent homes to black people in his neighborhood near St. Peter's Hospital. And they say he used a computer to alter his voice on the calls. In one of the calls, Hennessey threatened to kill a black woman in his neighborhood. In another, he told a victim that "we are going to kidnap the little black boy who plays outside and tie him up."

Albany police and FBI agents traced calls to Hennessey through documents from the website, Verizon Wireless, a Time Warner Cable account and Hennessey's Internet provider address.

Griggs called Hennessey's crimes "egregious and reprehensible." She asked for a state prison sentence.

Terence Kindlon, the defendant's attorney, suggested his client's mental health played a part in the crimes. He said after his client's arrest, Hennessey was discovered lying naked in his home with empty pill bottles around him.

Herrick was unmoved, sentencing Hennessey to the maximum.

"These acts are incredibly bad. Reprehensible. Inexcusable," the judge told Hennessey. "You have irreparably damaged the people that you harassed."

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU