COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — The Coeur d'Alene Police Department released new video on Wednesday of a North Idaho teenager allegedly yelling slurs at the Utah women's basketball team. The alleged racist incident happened back in March, and the team's coach, Lynne Roberts, said the women were very upset.
"Nobody knew what to do." said Roberts at the post-game press conference back in March. "It was really upsetting and for our players and staff to not feel safe in the NCAA Tournament environment, its messed up."
Despite pictures and video of the incident, the Coeur d'Alene prosecutors office decided not to charge the teenager involved.
On Monday, prosecutors released a report of what 18-year-old Anthony Meyers allegedly yelled out of the car. The phrases were so explicit, KREM 2 couldn't report it, and most of the audio had to be covered.
The prosecutor's office had considered three potential charges for the teenager, including, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and malicious harassment. In the report, prosecutors said, while they don't condone what Meyers said, it wasn't enough to be a crime.
KREM 2 spoke with a Criminal Offense Attorney, Bevan Maxey from Spokane. Maxey isn't a part of this case but based on what he has seen, he thinks it could have gone either way.
"You know I think you put those two things together, the sexual component of it with the racial component of it" Maxey said. "I certainty think it would be well within his rights to try to prosecute this case but having considered all the facts and his judgement, he determined he wasn't going to do that.
The prosecutor's office said charging the teen came down to intent. In order to charge for malicious harassment, there needs to be a credible threat.
As for the other two charges, prosecutors said on a busy downtown street, yelling out the window isn't tumultuous or offensive. They also said, they couldn't prove there were any children around.
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