May 8 (UPI) — An 18-year-old Idaho student won’t face charges for yelling a racial slur at members of the Utah women’s basketball team in March, CNN, Deseret News and KREM2 reported Tuesday.
High-school student Anthony Myers allegedly admitted using a racial epithet toward the Utah women’s basketball team on March 21 while its members were staying in Coeur d’Alene for an NCAA basketball tournament game scheduled at Gonzaga University in nearby Spokane, Wash.
Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were walking to a restaurant when the incident happened and were subjected to similar derision after leaving the restaurant, they said.
The city’s chief deputy attorney, Ryan Hunter, said Myers admitted using the racial slur and making an obscene sexual statement toward the women, but Hunter said there’s “insufficient evidence to establish probable cause” to arrest and charge Myers “without reliance on First Amendment protected speech.”
Hunter said shouting at a group of people from a moving vehicle doesn’t violate state law regarding disturbing the peace or the city’s law against disorderly conduct.
Hunter described Myers’ alleged statement as “abhorrently racist and misogynist” but said it doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal act.
He said the U.S. Constitution and the Idaho Constitution affirm Myers’ right to free speech.
The Coeur d’Alene Police Department interviewed almost two dozen witnesses and reviewed 35 hours of surveillance video to identify Myers and three others who were in a vehicle when Myers allegedly made the offensive comment.
Hunter said Myers initially admitted to using the racial slur but partially retracted his admission.
Hunter on Friday concluded no viable charges could be brought in the case and announced the decision on Monday.