COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – A North Idaho prosecutor will not bring hate crime charges against an 18-year-old accused of shouting racist slurs at members of the Utah women’s basketball team during the NCAA Tournament.
Coeur d’Alene’s deputy city attorney made the announcement Monday, writing in a charging decision document that while the use of the slur was “abhorrent” and “incredibly offensive,” there was no evidence suggesting that the man would threaten physical harm to the women or their property. This means the conduct is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be charged under Idaho’s malicious harassment law, Ryan Hunter wrote.
Members of the University of Utah basketball team were staying at a Coeur d’Alene hotel in March while competing in the NCAA Tournament in nearby Spokane, Washington. Team members were walking from a hotel to a restaurant when they said a truck appeared and the driver shouted a racist slur at the group. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver returned and was “reinforced by others,” revving the engines and yelling at the players again, Kootenai County Human Relations Task Force official Tony Stewart said during an interview. press conference soon. after the event.
The encounters were so disturbing that they left the group concerned for their safety, Utah coach Lynne Roberts said a few days later.
Far-right extremists have maintained a presence in the region for years. In 2018, at least nine hate groups operated in the Spokane region and northern Idaho, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“We have had several instances of some type of racial hate crime against our program and (it was) incredibly upsetting to all of us,” Roberts said. “In our world, in athletics and in college environments, it’s shocking. There’s so much diversity on a college campus and you just don’t get exposed to it very often.”
University of Utah officials declined to comment on the prosecutor’s decision Wednesday.
In the document detailing the decision, Hunter said police interviewed nearly two dozen witnesses and pored over hours of surveillance video. Several credible witnesses described a racist slur hurled at the group as they walked to dinner, but their descriptions of the vehicle and the person yelling the slur varied, and police were unable to hear any audio of the yelling on surveillance tapes. .
There was also no evidence connecting the encounter before the team arrived at the restaurant with what happened when they left, Hunter wrote. Still, police were able to identify the occupants of a silver passenger vehicle involved in the second encounter, and one of them – an 18-year-old high school student – reportedly confessed to shouting a slur and an obscene statement at the group, Hunter. he said.
Prosecutors considered bringing three possible charges against the man — malicious harassment, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace — but decided they did not have enough evidence to support any of the three charges.
This is because Idaho hate crimes law only considers racial harassment a crime if it is done with the intent to threaten or cause physical harm to a person or their property. The man who shouted the slur told police he did it because he thought it would be funny, Hunter wrote.
“Leaving aside the absurdity of this statement and the abjectly disgusting thought process required to believe that it would be funny to say something so abhorrent,” this undermines the premise that the man specifically intended to intimidate and harass, Hunter wrote.
The hateful speech also did not meet the requirements of Idaho’s disorderly conduct and disturbing of the peace laws, which primarily deal with when and where noise or unruly behavior occurs. The slurs were shouted on a busy road during the early evening and therefore the noise level was not unusual for that time and place.
Hunter wrote that his office shares the outrage provoked by the man’s “abhorrently racist and misogynistic statement,” and we join in unequivocally condemning that statement and the use of a racial slur in this case, or in any circumstance. However, this cannot, under current law, form the basis for criminal prosecution in this case.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
