Unbelievable how low some people can go.
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A week after a reported campus hate crime drew national attention, sparked protests and shut down the prestigious Claremont Colleges, police on Wednesday called the incident a hoax staged by a professor who slashed tires, shattered windows and spray-painted racist graffiti on her own car.
Claremont McKenna College psychology professor Kerri Dunn, who had told police that her car was vandalized as she spoke at a March 9 forum on racism, was identified by two eyewitnesses as the person who damaged the auto, authorities said Wednesday.
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Dunn, 39, is a white woman who has spoken publicly about how she was considering converting from Catholicism to Judaism and has urged students to fight racism. On Wednesday, Dunn denied police claims and said she was "enraged" by their comments.
"This is like a very big deal if they think I'm a suspect," Dunn said in the doorway of her Redlands home. "I didn't want any of this from the beginning. This is so overshadowing the bigger problem on campus, which is that the administration has turned its head regularly on hate speech and hate crimes."
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In a statement released Wednesday, the Claremont Police Department said two witnesses had "positively identified the victim as vandalizing her own vehicle. Additionally, interviews with the alleged victim revealed inconsistencies in her statement regarding the incident."
Claremont police declined to elaborate. But sources also said that while Dunn first had claimed $1,700 worth of property, including a CD player and a briefcase, was stolen from her 1992 Honda Civic, she later told investigators the items had turned up.
Cheryl Mimura, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, said no federal hate crime charges will be filed against Dunn, but that she could face charges of making false statements to a federal officer, which is a felony. That will be a decision for the U.S. attorney's office, Mimura said.
Dunn's attorney said the conduct of police in the case was troubling.
Claremont McKenna College psychology professor Kerri Dunn, who had told police that her car was vandalized as she spoke at a March 9 forum on racism, was identified by two eyewitnesses as the person who damaged the auto, authorities said Wednesday.
[...]
Dunn, 39, is a white woman who has spoken publicly about how she was considering converting from Catholicism to Judaism and has urged students to fight racism. On Wednesday, Dunn denied police claims and said she was "enraged" by their comments.
"This is like a very big deal if they think I'm a suspect," Dunn said in the doorway of her Redlands home. "I didn't want any of this from the beginning. This is so overshadowing the bigger problem on campus, which is that the administration has turned its head regularly on hate speech and hate crimes."
[...]
In a statement released Wednesday, the Claremont Police Department said two witnesses had "positively identified the victim as vandalizing her own vehicle. Additionally, interviews with the alleged victim revealed inconsistencies in her statement regarding the incident."
Claremont police declined to elaborate. But sources also said that while Dunn first had claimed $1,700 worth of property, including a CD player and a briefcase, was stolen from her 1992 Honda Civic, she later told investigators the items had turned up.
Cheryl Mimura, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, said no federal hate crime charges will be filed against Dunn, but that she could face charges of making false statements to a federal officer, which is a felony. That will be a decision for the U.S. attorney's office, Mimura said.
Dunn's attorney said the conduct of police in the case was troubling.
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