The police have moved ahead and are prosecuting Kerri Dunn. I think it was the insurance fraud that forced their hand. Insurance fraud investigators are not the least bit PC.
Professor charged in hate-crime hoax
A visiting psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., was formally charged by prosecutors Monday in connection with a hoax hate crime that triggered protests and a one-day shutdown of the Claremont College campuses last month.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged Kerri Dunn, 39, with one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and two felony counts of insurance fraud.
Prosecutors alleged that Dunn falsely reported that an unknown vandal spray-painted her car with racist and anti-Semitic slurs on March 9, as she was speaking at a campus forum on racism. Officials said Dunn also submitted a false insurance claim, never paid, for items supposedly taken from her 1990 Honda Civic and for damage to the car, which had its windows smashed and tires slashed.
Dunn is scheduled to surrender to authorities at Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona, Calif., on May 19, the date of her arraignment.
If convicted, Dunn could face up to three years in state prison, prosecutors said.
In a prepared statement, District Attorney Steve Cooley said, "False accusations that imply hate crimes prey on the legitimate concerns of the public who truly abhor violence based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. And those who make false claims should realize there is a penalty for doing so."
Reached by phone Monday at her home in Redlands, Calif., Dunn declined to comment.
Her lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, declined to be interviewed. He issued a news release saying Dunn "maintains her innocence and hopes that this case will not divert attention from the racism problems on the Claremont College campuses."
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said that federal authorities were investigating the case and that Dunn could face federal charges of making false statements to FBI investigators.
When the damage to Dunn's car originally was reported, she and student activists linked the incident to a string of racially charged episodes on the Claremont campuses.
Posted by floridacracker at April 27, 2004 09:05 AM