The Coeur d’Alene District Attorney’s Office will not file charges against a person accused of racial harassment toward women’s basketball in Utah

The incident occurred during the NCAA Tournament and left Utes members distraught.

An 18-year-old Idaho man who officials say admitted racially abusing members of the University of Utah women’s basketball team will not be charged with a crime.

After two months of investigating the incident, which occurred on the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, prosecutors in the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, decided last week not to prosecute the man, citing lack of probable cause and a possible violation of He has a constitutional right to freedom of expression.

The man, a Coeur d’Alene high school student, admitted shouting the N-word and a sexually explicit comment from a car as Utes players walked nearby, according to a charging document obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

The incident, which occurred March 21 as Utah prepared for a tournament game against Gonzaga, was captured on surveillance video.

On May 3, Coeur d’Alene Assistant District Attorney Ryan Hunter wrote that prosecutors were considering charging the man with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and malicious harassment. However, the document said there was “insufficient evidence” that the man “acted with the specific intent to intimidate or harass a specific person.”

“On the contrary, the sum of the evidence suggests that his intention was to be funny,” Hunter wrote.

Hunter also concluded that the man’s conduct did not rise to the level of criminal prosecution on the other two charges. He also wrote that the man’s comment and use of the N-word “fail to meet legal requirements for any of the narrow categories of unprotected speech.”

“Our office shares the outrage sparked by (the defendant’s) vile racist and misogynistic statement, and we join in unequivocally condemning that statement and the use of a racial slur in this case or in any circumstances,” Hunter wrote. “However, under current law, this cannot be the basis for criminal prosecution in this case.”

The Tribune is not identifying the 18-year-old man because no criminal charges have been filed against him.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department’s investigation into the incident did not exactly match initial reports of the night.

A few hours after the incident, Robert Moyer, a university donor, reported it to a police officer based on body camera footage obtained by The Tribune. Moyer said people in trucks revving their engines shouted the N-word at the team and tour group as they walked to dinner.

“It was aggressive,” Moyer said. “It wasn’t passive. It was like they were having fun fucking with us.”

The charging decision document states that video surveillance shows three trucks making “significant noises while accelerating,” but not during the time the Utah delegation entered the restaurant. The document also states that there is no audio evidence to suggest that people in those trucks said the N-word during that time.

On March 25, Utes coach Lynne Roberts first made the allegations public, saying her team had experienced “racial hate crimes” during its stay in Coeur d’Alene, which is more than 30 minutes from Spokane, Washington, where the first two Rounds of the tournament were held were recorded.

Roberts said the incident prompted the team to change hotels, calling it “a distraction, disturbing and unfortunate.”