Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, city attorneys have declined to charge an 18-year-old suspected of yelling intimidating racial slurs at the University of Utah women’s basketball team that marred their experience playing in March Madness in Spokane.
Prosecutors said the suspect, a high-school student, admitted he yelled racial and sexual epithets at the players with the desire to be “funny,” according to a written decision released Monday afternoon by Chief Deputy City Attorney Ryan Hunter.
The student’s words, however, are protected speech under Idaho law, and prosecutors determined his actions did not amount to conduct deemed criminal.
The Seattle Times does not generally name those who have not been charged with a crime.
On March 21, about 100 members of Utah’s athletics department, including players, coaches, band members, cheerleaders, the dance team and school officials, walked along Sherman Avenue from the Coeur d’Alene Resort, where they were staying as part of the NCAA tournament held in Spokane. The team, along with members of the band and the athletic department, walked down the street to have dinner downtown. They had a 5:30 p.m. reservation for around 90 people, according to Junior Mujtaba, manager of the Crafted Tap House + Kitchen.
Utah team donor Robert Moyer reported the harassment to police two hours after the incident. In the report, he said people inside multiple lifted pickups and a “souped-up car” yelled racial slurs at the nonwhite players as the drivers revved their engines. On the walk back from dinner, the group appeared to have been waiting for the team, Moyer reported, with the vehicles speeding up and slowing down as the people inside hurled slurs.
The prosecutor’s document, which includes the Coeur d’Alene Police Department’s three-week investigation, said there was surveillance video of lifted trucks driving by around the time the team was walking to dinner, but no evidence to support that the occupants of the trucks were revving their engines or yelling racial slurs at the team.
The investigation included about two dozen interviews and hours of surveillance video.
More evidence supports that the use of racial slurs was audible when the team was walking back from dinner, the documents said. Footage captured a silver car driving past the team, with someone inside shouting multiple racial slurs and making sexual threats, the document said. A female voice is also heard in the audio shouting for someone to call the police.
Five witnesses gave varied descriptions of the car and the person shouting from inside it.
Moyer said the hateful language and loud vehicles, which he described as “aggressive,” forced the team to walk faster to the restaurant.
“Some of us didn’t realize what had happened until we got to the restaurant and people are just like — one was in tears,” he said.
The University of Utah declined to comment Monday.
The incident did not become publicized until after Utah lost to Gonzaga University in the NCAA tournament in Spokane the following Monday.
It grew into a national story, sparked outrage from Coeur d’Alene leaders and brought negative attention to the city.
On Monday afternoon, Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said he was disappointed to hear there would not be charges filed, or an alternative that would have held offenders accountable.
“I’m disappointed that there isn’t some kind of accountability,” Hammond said. “I’m not going to second-guess the prosecutor who made that decision, but I’m disappointed there’s not some form of community service that child can perform to be held accountable.”
Hammond said he hopes the person’s parents do what they can to make clear the ramifications of his actions. He wants the city to be known as an area where people are treated with respect, and worries the decision not to file charges will send the wrong message.
“The concern that I have is, I don’t want the message to be that it’s OK to behave like that, that it’s OK to treat people like that,” Hammond said. “Because it’s not.”
Hunter, the chief deputy city attorney, explored charging the suspect with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct or malicious harassment, but ultimately found that the incident did not rise to the level to support filing criminal charges.
In the decision against charging him with malicious harassment, the prosecutor wrote: “To be clear, the statements of the other occupants of the vehicle and of [the suspect] himself all support that he — as a white male — thought it would be funny,” and that “nevertheless undermines that he had the required specific intent to intimidate and harass.”
Hunter wrote that the prosecutors’ office “shares the outrage sparked by [the person’s] abhorrently racist and misogynistic statement.” But he noted that prosecutors are duty bound to only pursue charges that are supported by probable cause that a crime was committed.
Tony Stewart, founding member and secretary of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said it’s important to note the investigation confirmed the incident happened, after critics of his organization, and the investigation in general, called the validity of the team’s experience into question.
Coeur d’Alene Capt. David Hagar declined to comment on the charging decision and said the investigation speaks for itself.
Reporters Nick Gibson and Emma Epperly contributed to this article.