The Kootenai County prosecutor is declining to file charges in a racist incident at the University of Utah

The Kootenai County District Attorney’s Office announced this week that it will not file charges in a racist incident against the University of Utah women’s basketball team.

The team stayed at the Coeur d’Alene Resort while participating in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in nearby Spokane, Washington, in March. In the initial report of the incident, Robert Moyer, a financial supporter of the team, told Coeur d’Alene police that two lifted pickup trucks “revved their engines and sped past the U of U troop” as they approached one Went to a nearby restaurant for a dinner reservation, according to the fee notice.

Moyer also said the trucks turned around, drove past again and shouted racial slurs at the team.

“Based on this report, the CDA Police Department initiated a comprehensive three-week investigation, interviewing nearly two dozen witnesses and meticulously reviewing hours of surveillance video,” the prosecutor wrote in the charging decision.

During the investigation, surveillance video captured a silver passenger car driving in the area from which someone could be heard shouting, “I hate (n-words), but I’m going to fuck your ass,” the decision states.

The identities of the four people in one of the vehicles were identified, including 18-year-old Anthony Myers, a male student at Post Falls High School who made the offensive statement containing the racial slur.

The investigation also revealed that Myers shouted the N-word as the vehicle drove past the restaurant where the team was eating. Myers tried to retract part of his confession, saying another person in the vehicle made the statement, but the prosecutor wrote there was very little evidence to support that claim.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department referred this case to the District Attorney’s Office for review of whether the teen’s conduct violated any laws, specifically disturbing the peace under Idaho Code § 18-6409 and disorderly conduct under Coeur d’Alene Municipal Code § 9.22. 010. Prosecutor Ryan S. Hunter also examined whether the conduct violated a third law: malicious harassment under Idaho Code § 18-7902.

Ultimately, prosecutors declined to file charges because there was insufficient evidence to establish probable cause “with respect to each element of a potential criminal offense(s) without relying on First Amendment protected speech,” Hunter wrote in the decision.