Last April, Shelly Lynn Hueckel brought her car into a Betten Baker GMC dealership to have its trade in value appraised. When the appraisal came back lower than Hueckel expected it, she called the dealership employee Terrance Smith the N word slapping and hitting him.
On Monday, Kent County Circuit Court Judge Paul Sullivan said that her actions were not motivated by race. And that yelling racial slurs at someone is not enough to be charged with the crime of “ethnic intimidation”. Mutually Inclusive Producer Mariano Avila asked Kent County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in a previous interview to explain what the “ethnic” part of the term means.
“The defendant has to specifically threaten to harass somebody because of their race, gender, color, national origin, or religion.”
And according to Prosecuting Attorney, Chris Becker the type of aggression also matters.
“They have to either assault them—so make some sort of physical contact with them. Damage their property, deface property around them. Or, threaten to assault them or damage property, and there’s a reasonable probability that that would happen.”
The Judge did find Hueckel guilty of assault, but said that he believes she would have had a similar reaction if Smith had been white and her reaction wasn’t motivated by race but instead by the appraisal for her car.
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.
