Friday, March 19, 2004

Professor Is Accused of Staging Hate Crime by Vandalizing Her Own Car By ROBIN WILSON Printer friendly E-mail article Subscribe Order reprints HEADLINES   U.S. House committee passes bill to strengthen law on military recruiters' access to colleges Colorado lawmaker agrees to shelve bill that sought to fight political bias on campuses President of Southwest Missouri State U. defends '95 comments on homosexuality as opinion Professor is accused of staging hate crime by vandalizing her own car Carnegie Mellon's business school receives $55-million gift  A psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College who said her car had been vandalized and painted with racist and sexist slurs was herself responsible for the damage, the police in Claremont, Calif., said Wednesday. Kerri F. Dunn, a visiting professor of social psychology at Claremont McKenna, spoke at a campus forum about hate crimes on March 9. When she later returned to her vehicle, which she had parked on the campus, she said the front window had been smashed and all four tires slashed. According to Ms. Dunn, who complained to the college and the police, someone had used black spray-paint to scrawl "whore," "nigger lover," and "bitch" on the car. The incident prompted administrators to cancel classes on March 10 at Claremont McKenna and the six other institutions that are part of the Claremont Colleges system. Hundreds of students marched on the campuses to protest the vandalism. "Never in your wildest dreams did anyone expect such a violent act to take place here," said Marc S. Bathgate, who is a junior and president-elect of the student government at Claremont McKenna, located in a quiet community about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Students at the college are on spring break this week, but Mr. Bathgate said on Thursday that those he had spoken with felt "shocked, confused, angry, disgusted, and betrayed" by the possibility that Ms. Dunn was the perpetrator, not the victim. The Claremont Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they have completed their investigation of the incident. "During the course of the investigation, two eyewitnesses came forward who positively identified the victim as vandalizing her own vehicle," said a statement released by the police on Wednesday. "Additionally, interviews with the alleged victim revealed inconsistencies in her statements regarding the incident." Ms. Dunn could not be reached for comment on Thursday. But in an article in Thursday's Los Angeles Times, she said she was "enraged" at the police allegations. "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," Ms. Dunn told the newspaper. Ms. Dunn, a white woman who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, has been teaching at Claremont McKenna for a year and a half under a contract that ends in June. "Based on the information from the police investigation, Claremont McKenna College will be conducting a further investigation into the professor's employment relationship with the college," said Pamela B. Gann, the college's president. After the vandalism occurred, the college offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the perpetrator. In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Gann said it was too soon to say whether the money would be distributed. Two incidents earlier this year have concerned administrators and students at the Claremont Colleges. In January four athletes were punished for taking an 11-foot-tall cross from Pomona College and burning it at Harvey Mudd College -- both part of the Claremont system. They told the police it was a prank, not a hate crime. Then, in February, a picture of George Washington Carver hanging in a dormitory at Claremont McKenna was defaced. The incidents led Claremont McKenna to sponsor the forum at which Ms. Dunn spoke. According to the Los Angeles Times, the police said Ms. Dunn could be charged with filing a false report, a misdemeanor.