Alissa Pili #35 and Jenna Johnson #22 of the Utah Utes do after shooting against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on March 25, 2024 in Spokane, Washington react.
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Alissa Pili #35 and Jenna Johnson #22 of the Utah Utes do after shooting against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on March 25, 2024 in Spokane, Washington react.
Stephen Chambers/Getty Images
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho prosecutors say they will not file charges against a man accused of yelling a racial slur at a University of Utah women’s basketball player.
The incident outside the team’s hotel during the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in March drew national headlines because it also occurred in an area that has long been associated with white supremacist groups.
The harassment first surfaced during a game press conference, when University of Utah women’s head coach Lynne Rogers said a man in a pickup truck was driving outside a team dinner in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Yelling the “N” word at her team members.
Team members told police that as they and staff were walking to dinner, someone in a truck flying a Confederate flag yelled racial slurs. They said the truck and a second truck were waiting when the team returned from dinner and followed them back to the hotel.
“It’s really frustrating,” Rodgers said at a news conference in March. “It would be terrible for our players and staff not to feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment.”
Now, after a two-month investigation that included the assistance of the FBI and a review of CCTV footage, authorities say they have questioned a local high school student who admitted to yelling a racial slur. Police said they had contacted up to 100 people who they believed may have witnessed the incident.
But in a charging document, Coeur d’Alene prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence and that the students’ use of the nickname “failed to satisfy the legal requirements of any narrow category of unprotected speech.”
The NCAA said it is working with Utah State and tournament host Gonzaga University, as well as the UC Irvine women’s team, which is also staying in Coeur d’Alene, to ensure its additional security. The next day, the Utah team was moved to a hotel in Spokane. The UC Irvine team returns home after being eliminated from the tournament.
“I strongly condemn the appalling treatment of female college athletes who visited Coeur d’Alene before the start of the Spokane basketball tournament,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said at a hastily called news conference in March. “
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Aryan Nations moved its headquarters to Coeur d’Alene, and Coeur d’Alene and northern Idaho became a haven for extremist and racist groups. Skinheads marched in the 1990s. Activity declined after a lawsuit resulted in the group essentially disbanding. But two summers ago, 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested there as they planned to disrupt a queer pride event.
Troy Opie, Boise State Public Radio
