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Michael A. Hoffman II, Editor
March 18, 2004
Claremont (California) Hate Crime Called Hoax
Police say a professor damaged her own car, but she denies it. Last
week's incident sparked anti-racism rallies. By Joy Buchanan, Kristina
Sauerwein and Stuart Silverstein Times Staff Writers
Los Angeles Times | March 18, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-claremont18mar18,1,3230948.story?coll=la-home-local
A week after a reported campus hate crime drew national attention,
sparked protests and shut down the prestigious Claremont Colleges,
police on Wednesday called the incident a hoax staged by a professor who
slashed tires, shattered windows and spray-painted racist graffiti on
her own car.
Claremont McKenna College psychology professor Kerri Dunn, who had told
police that her car was vandalized as she spoke at a March 9 forum on
racism, was identified by two eyewitnesses as the person who damaged the
auto, authorities said Wednesday.
She was not arrested, but Claremont Police Lt. Stan Van Horn said the
case would be sent to the Los Angeles County district attorney for
review and that the likely charge would be filing a false police report,
a misdemeanor. The FBI said she might face more serious felony charges
of lying to federal investigators.
Campus leaders last week had condemned the vandalism as a hate crime,
shut down the Claremont consortium of colleges for a day of anti-hate
rallies and called in FBI investigators. The police contention that Dunn
staged the incident triggered a wave of anger against her Wednesday and
fears that students would become cynical about racism.
Dunn, 39, is a white woman who has spoken publicly about how she was
considering converting from Catholicism to Judaism and has urged
students to fight racism. On Wednesday, Dunn denied police claims and
said she was "enraged" by their comments.
"This is like a very big deal if they think I'm a suspect," Dunn said in
the doorway of her Redlands home. "I didn't want any of this from the
beginning. 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."
Claremont McKenna College President Pamela Gann said the idea that Dunn
vandalized her own car came as "a shock and a surprise." Gann said that
Dunn's continued employment at the school was under review but that the
college remained committed to "academic freedom and free speech."
At the time of the incident, Dunn and student activists connected the
alleged attack with a string of racially charged incidents on the
Claremont campuses. Earlier this year, four students stole an 11-foot
cross from an art class and set it afire. The next month, a student
discovered a racial slur written on a picture of George Washington
Carver, a black agricultural scientist.
Classes at the Claremont Colleges were out for spring break Wednesday,
but word of the police account troubled students. "It's a hard situation
to grasp," said Josh Keough, 21, a Claremont McKenna senior. "People are
in a state of disbelief. We should keep an open mind."
Others had harsher things to say.
Andrew McDavid, editor of the Claremont Student monthly campus
newspaper, said he felt "manipulated."
"I had considered the possibility that someone might be doing this to
make a point about racism on the campuses," McDavid said. "But I
dismissed that as a bit of a conspiracy theory."
McDavid said students would be angry when they returned next week. "This
really fouled up classes before spring break," McDavid said. "But at the
same time, there were some good conversations that came out of this, and
it will make people less credulous in the future."
Katherine Lind, chairwoman of the Claremont Committee on Human
Relations, a city agency, said she was upset by the news but that her
biggest concern was that students would be discouraged by the outcome of
the investigation. "What they did the rallies, the forums was really
inspiring," she said. "Their passion was a lesson for us all.
"I urge the students to continue to articulate their problems and not
let this incident dissuade them in any way," Lind said.
According to Dunn's account last week, she arrived at her office in
Seaman Hall about 5:15 p.m. and began preparing a lecture for a forum on
racism at Scripps College. Shortly after 8 p.m., when she went to move
her car closer to Scripps, a campus a quarter of a mile away, she found
the car vandalized.
Dunn said someone had spray-painted "shut up" on the hood of her car, as
well as racist and anti-Semitic slurs on the roof and sides of the
vehicle. She speculated that she was being targeted for her outspoken
views and that she suspected the crime was committed by one of her
students or a friend of one of her students.
At the time, Dunn said she asked passersby if they had seen what had
happened. They said no.
After seeing the damaged car, Dunn said, she ran to the site of the
Scripps forum and told people what had happened. Someone called the
police and a colleague walked her back to her car.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Claremont Police Department said
two witnesses had "positively identified the victim as vandalizing her
own vehicle. Additionally, interviews with the alleged victim revealed
inconsistencies in her statement regarding the incident."
Claremont police declined to elaborate. But sources also said that while
Dunn first had claimed $1,700 worth of property, including a CD player
and a briefcase, was stolen from her 1992 Honda Civic, she later told
investigators the items had turned up.
Cheryl Mimura, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, said
no federal hate crime charges will be filed against Dunn, but that she
could face charges of making false statements to a federal officer,
which is a felony. That will be a decision for the U.S. attorney's
office, Mimura said.
Dunn's attorney said the conduct of police in the case was troubling.
"No. 1, the idea that the police would publicly discuss their
investigation is outrageous," said attorney Gary Lincenberg. "No. 2, it
is an outrageous and sad twist to victimize a person who was trying to
speak out against hate crimes. I don't know who vandalized her car, but
I know it wasn't her."
According to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Dunn received a law
degree from the school in May 1998 and a PhD in psychology in December
2002. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Cal State San
Bernardino.
Before heading to Claremont McKenna, Dunn worked for more than a year as
a consultant in the Los Angeles office of Trial Behavior Consulting,
which advises law firms and corporate clients. She specialized in jury
research.
College president Gann said Dunn has taught at the college for a year
and a half and that her current contract as a visiting assistant
psychology professor ends this spring. Gann said no decision had been
made on Dunn's continued employment at the college. Dunn has filled in
for members of the psychology department on sabbatical and this semester
is teaching Introduction to Psychology and Social Psychology.
"Until this incident occurred, there's been no reason to question
anything about her professional performance," Gann said.
"Her teaching evaluations for her time here have been quite fine. She's
been a good colleague, and she's been very supportive of students and
their research, and outside related activities."
Roman Marenin, 20, a junior at Claremont McKenna, said he had a class
with Dunn last year. "She was awesome. She wasn't one of those
professors who talked down to students. She was very passionate."
But when he heard the news that police suspected her of vandalizing her
own car, he just kept shaking his head.
"I hope it's not true," he said.
Experts said such incidents can have lasting and unanticipated impacts
on a community.
Lee Ross, a social psychologist on the faculty at Stanford University,
said that if Dunn is proven to have committed the vandalism, the
professor may still have raised people's awareness about racism. "One
ironic thing is that doing this may actually have accomplished some of
her goals, if her goal was to make people feel that racism was present
and that there was danger of white backlash," Ross said.
Ross also discussed the possible motive of someone perpetrating a hoax.
"Sometimes people invent facts because they believe that the conclusion
that it would lead people to is true," he said. "So they convince
themselves that, in some deep way, they're not really lying or they're
not really being dishonest because the message they're conveying is one
that's true."
In Claremont, student organizers worried that the news would sour
classmates on campus activism.
"I'm just afraid that all that community spirit is going to be lost and
become cynicism and anger," said Warren Katzenstein, 21, student body
president of Harvey Mudd College.
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