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Calif. Professor Charged with Hate Crime Hoax (media attention when she claimed that racists)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040426/us_nm/crime_hoax_dc_1 ^ | Mon Apr 26 2994 | Reuters

Posted on 04/27/2004 12:00:33 PM PDT by truth4

Calif. Professor Charged with Hate Crime Hoax

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California college professor who received wide media attention when she claimed that racists had vandalized and defaced her car with ethnic slurs was charged on Monday with filing a false police report and insurance fraud.

Kerri Dunn, a professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College, east of Los Angeles, portrayed herself as a victim of racists angered by her message of tolerance at a campus forum when she reported the vandalism on March 9. She then put in a claim with her auto insurer for damages to her car.

Her story drew media attention and prompted hundreds of students to rally in her name, joined by civil rights activists.

But police and FBI (news - web sites) agents who investigated the incident began suspecting Dunn of a hoax after witnesses came forward to say they had spotted the 39-year-old professor vandalizing her own car.

She was charged with one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and two felony counts of insurance fraud. She faces three years in prison if convicted at trial.

"False accusations that imply hate crimes prey on the legitimate concerns of the public who truly abhor violence based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation," Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a statement. "And those who make false claims should realize there is a penalty for doing so."

After Dunn's car was found covered in racial slurs, its tires slashed and windshield shattered, college officials offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Claremont President Pamela Gann has said the college would conduct its own investigation before deciding whether to retain Dunn, whose contract expires later this year.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: california; claremont; dunn; fakehatecrimes; hatecrime; hatecrimehoax; kerridunn; mckenna; psychology
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To: Guyin4Os
Kerri Dunn ... Kerry Done.... coincidence? We don't think so.

Kerri Dunn ... Kerry Done.... Carry Dung..... coincidence?

21 posted on 04/27/2004 12:36:38 PM PDT by bigjoesaddle (Shrug)
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To: truth4
... before deciding whether to retain Dunn, whose contract expires later this year.

Bingo. Victimhood enhances prospects for tenure, or at least a contract extension.

22 posted on 04/27/2004 12:37:05 PM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: js1138
What kind of hate crime? Every article that covers this fails to mention what kind of hate crime she made up.
23 posted on 04/27/2004 12:48:43 PM PDT by clarissaexplainsitall
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To: Iron Matron
Sensitivity training
24 posted on 04/27/2004 12:49:12 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: Blood of Tyrants
"If they can't find racism, they generate it."

Stupid white girl tricks. This moron is not AA. She probably just wanted some new tires and a paint job?
25 posted on 04/27/2004 12:55:32 PM PDT by BadAndy (Specializing in unnecessarily harsh comments.)
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To: dennisw
Truth is inimical to "Liberals" and everything they stand for. They hide from it like vampires hiding from the sunlight.
26 posted on 04/27/2004 12:59:00 PM PDT by Savage Beast ("Whom will the terrorists vote for? Not George Bush--that's for sure!" ~Happy2BMe)
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To: truth4
Claremont President Pamela Gann has said the college would conduct its own investigation before deciding whether to retain Dunn, whose contract expires later this year.

"Before deciding"? WTFO? If she is found guilty of the crime, there is no decision to make.

FIRE HER!

27 posted on 04/27/2004 1:06:14 PM PDT by catpuppy
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To: truth4
wonder what racist remarks were used on her?
28 posted on 04/27/2004 1:20:43 PM PDT by pollwatcher
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To: pollwatcher
what racist remarks were used on her?

Trailer trash?

29 posted on 04/27/2004 1:24:31 PM PDT by Alouette (Pray for the IDF and the USA--see my profile page)
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To: truth4
Another liberal who was just trying to "raise consciousness" concerning the plight of The Other, better known as the proletariat or the class enemies of liberal democracy.

The university will, no doubt, richly reward such behaviour. Performance art in the name of class struggle always gets the nod at Stalinist U.

30 posted on 04/27/2004 1:34:47 PM PDT by Reactionary
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To: Guillermo
Trading U.S. Rights for UN Rules http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/517388/posts
31 posted on 04/27/2004 2:21:13 PM PDT by truth4
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: truth4
Claremont President Pamela Gann has said the college would conduct its own investigation before deciding whether to retain Dunn, whose contract expires later this year.

Anyone want to take bets on CMC retaining Dunn next year?

She should suffer some penalty for trying to defame the student body of CMC.

33 posted on 04/27/2004 3:55:19 PM PDT by zoyd (Hi, I'm with the government. We're going to make you like your neighbor.)
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To: truth4
GUO. Stop FTAA.
34 posted on 04/27/2004 6:10:39 PM PDT by katz (Dogs are best friends. (They love their nine kitty cats too).)
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To: zoyd
Anyone want to take bets on CMC retaining Dunn next year?

I'll take that bet. Gann was seriously embarrassed in this episode (she basically shutdown the university for four days because of it), and it's likely she has more professional embarrassment to come.

Even a far left university president like Gann cannot afford to protect Dunn now. Dunn will go, and she'll have a helluva hard time getting another teaching position too. She has an unimpressive CV, is in her late 30s and Claremont is her first (or second) teaching job. And now she's branded as a con-artist.

35 posted on 04/27/2004 6:11:39 PM PDT by beckett
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