← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 14753 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2004-08-19
2004-08-19 04:24 | User Profile
[url]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/08/18/state2057EDT0218.DTL[/url]
**Jury convicts Claremont professor in staged hate crime case **
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
(08-18) 18:05 PDT POMONA, Calif. (AP) --
A Claremont McKenna College psychology professor was convicted Wednesday of falsely reporting her car was vandalized and spray-painted with racist and anti-Semitic slurs while she was speaking at a campus forum on racial tolerance.
Kerri Dunn, 39, of Redlands was convicted of one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and two felony counts of attempted insurance fraud. She faces up to 31/2 years in prison when she is sentenced Sept. 17.
Her attorney, Gary S. Lincenberg, issued a statement saying Dunn would appeal the attempted insurance fraud convictions.
The professor claimed her car was spray-painted and its tires slashed March 9. The report prompted college officials to cancel classes at Claremont's five undergraduate campuses the next day as thousands of students took part in demonstrations calling for tolerance.
Dunn called her insurance company that day to report the vandalism.
She became a suspect after two witnesses reported seeing her vandalizing her car. Investigators also said she gave them conflicting reports about what happened.
Dunn's attorney said the visiting professor never submitted a claim to her insurance company, adding the judge barred that evidence from being presented to the jury.
As for the false police report conviction, a Claremont College electrician identified a man who should have been the primary suspect, Lincenberg said.
Dunn, who remains on leave from Claremont McKenna College, maintains her innocence, he said.
2004-08-19 05:31 | User Profile
Let the weeping and gnashing of teeth begin at the ADL HQ. Seriously, I doubt she spends 20 seconds in jail. She'll turn up in some other college peddling her ideology on other students.
2004-08-19 05:58 | User Profile
Dunn's attorney said the visiting professor never submitted a claim to her insurance company, adding the judge barred that evidence from being presented to the jury.
Convenient that. It'd sure be interesting to know what the judges name is... Seems to me that'd be a nice hook to get the whole case thrown out on appeal.