In June 1986, Wahlberg and three friends chased after three African-American children while yelling "Kill the nigger, kill the nigger" and throwing rocks at them.[13] The next day, Wahlberg and others followed a group of schoolchildren taking a field trip on a beach, yelled racial epithets at them, threw rocks at them and "summoned other white males who joined" in the harassment.[13] In August 1986, civil action was filed against Wahlberg for violating the civil rights of his victims, and the case was later settled the next month.[14][15][16]
In April 1988, Wahlberg approached a middle-aged Vietnamese man named Thanh Lam on the street and, using a large wooden stick, bashed him over the head until he was knocked unconscious while calling him a "Vietnam fucking shit". That same day, Wahlberg also attacked a second Vietnamese man named Hoa "Johnny" Trinh, punching him in the eye without provocation. According to court documents regarding these crimes, when Wahlberg was arrested later that night and returned to the scene of the first assault, he stated to police officers: "You don't have to let him identify me, I'll tell you now that's the mother-fucker whose head I split open."[17] Investigators also noted that Wahlberg "made numerous unsolicited racial statements about 'gooks' and 'slant-eyed gooks'".[18][19]
For these crimes, Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to assault, and was sentenced to two years in Suffolk County Deer Island House of Correction. He ultimately served 45 days of his sentence,[18][20] but carries a permanent felony record. Wahlberg believed he had left Trinh permanently blind in one eye.[16][18][19] In August 1992, then 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.[21] Court documents state that in 1992, Wahlberg "without provocation or cause, viciously and repeatedly kicked" a man named Robert D. Crehan in the face and jaw while another man named Derek McCall held Crehan down on the ground.[22]
Commenting in 2006 on his past crimes, Wahlberg said the right thing to do would be to meet with Trinh and make amends, and admitted he had not done so.[20] In 2016, while in the process of requesting a pardon for his conviction of assault on Trinh, Wahlberg said he had met with Trinh and apologized "for those horrific acts."