SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KUTV) — An 18-year-old who reportedly admitted to shouting racist slurs at the University of Utah women's basketball team while they both arrived and left a Coeur d'Alene restaurant in March will not be charged.
The news came Monday from the city's chief deputy attorney, who released a charging decision document that outlined the investigation and the reasons why the suspect wouldn't face any legal consequences.
March 21 Incidents
The team was staying in Idaho for an NCAA championship game , which was being held in nearby Spokane, Washington, just over 33 miles to the west. While going out to the Coeur d'Alene restaurant one evening, the team reported being harassed by a passing vehicle that displayed a Confederate flag and accosted them with racist epithets.
After dinner, the team alleged the same vehicle was outside the restaurant to do it again. This time, the silver car was joined by other vehicles, which were revving their engines as their occupants yelled at the players.
Detectives with Coeur d'Alene Police Department were able to obtain recordings that corroborated a portion of the women's claims.
Evidence Corroborates Reports
In an April 9 statement, CDAPD said they "identified an audio recording where the use of a racial slur was clearly audible," and that it could be heard being shouted "more than once."
"We're working to determine the context and conduct associated with its use to determine if it is a violation of the law," according to the statement.
CDAPD Chief Lee White said any suspects identified and arrested could potentially be facing state charges for malicious harassment and disorderly conduct, but added that any charges will depend on the facts gathered during the investigation.
Prosecutor Decides Not To File Charges
On May 6, Coeur d'Alene Deputy Chief Attorney Ryan Hunter released the city's charging decision, which identified an individual who admitted to the allegations.
The CDA Police Department’s subsequent exhaustive investigation determined the identities of the four occupants of the silver passenger car and, ultimately, confirmed that one of the individuals in that vehicle, Anthony Richard Myers, an 18-year-old student at Post Falls High School, made the offensive statement containing the racial slur, to which he subsequently confessed during interviews with law enforcement. The investigation also established that Mr. Myers had shouted the N-word as the vehicle passed in front of Crafted just before saying it again as part of the obscene statement directed at members of the U of U contingent. Mr. Myers subsequently tried to retract part of his confession and claimed he had just shouted the N-word while another occupant of the vehicle, Aiden Riggins, had made the obscene statement that also contained the N-word. However, there is very little evidence to support that post-hoc claim, while there is substantial evidence corroborating his original admission.The report noted that, while the team's claims of the second incident were corroborated, there wasn't any evidence as of Monday to prove it had happened as they were entering the restaurant.
And while credible eyewitnesses all agreed that the racist language was shouted, their reports on the rest of the night's events varied widely.
As such, authorities were unable to connect Myers involvement with the first reported incident.
Additionally, detectives were not able to find any audio or video evidence of the team's claim that the gathered vehicles were revving their engines in a threatening manner.
Idaho Laws
Myers was referred to the city attorney's office to review whether he violated Idaho's laws on disturbing the peace and Coeur d'Alene's code on disorderly conduct. Hunter also reviewed whether Myers' admitted actions equated to malicious harassment.
Ultimately, Hunter concluded that "any attempt to prosecute Mr. Myers for either Disturbing the Peace or Disorderly Conduct would inevitably rely on the content of what he said to establish either crime, which would clearly violate Mr. Myers’s free speech rights as contemplated under both the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. I, sec. 9 of the Idaho Constitution. Moreover, prosecution under these circumstances would inevitably fail, whether through pretrial dismissal due to the clear free speech issues involved or acquittal due to exclusion of the content evidence upon which that prosecution would inevitably have to rely at trial."
"Abhorrently Racist and Misogynistic" Free Speech
In the document's penultimate paragraph, Hunter stated:
Our office shares in the outrage sparked by Anthony Myers’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, that cannot, under current law, form the basis for criminal prosecution in this case.The final prosecutor's charging decision: "Prosecution declined due to insufficient evidence to establish probable cause as to every element of any of the potential offense(s) without reliance on First Amendment protected speech."
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