Man Who Shouted Racist Slur at Utah WCBB Team Won't Be Charged After Investigation

An 18-year-old man recorded on surveillance video shouting a racist slur toward the University of Utah women's basketball team during the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament will not be criminally charged, Alex Vejar reported for the Salt Lake Tribune.

Attorneys for the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, decided on May 3 not to prosecute the man, a student at a Coeur d'Alene high school, "based on a lack of probable cause and the potential violation of his constitutional right to free speech," Vejar reported.

According to charging decision documents, the man admitted to "shouting the N-word and a sexually explicit comment from a car as the Utes players walked nearby," per Vejar.

The documents revealed that police considered charging the man with "disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and malicious harassment," Vejar wrote.

But Coeur d'Alene Chief Deputy City Attorney Ryan Hunter wrote that the department had not found evidence that the man "acted with a specific intent to intimidate or harass any specific person," and instead said evidence indicated the man's "intent was to be funny," Vejar reported.

Utah coach Lynne Roberts first publicly described the incident, which she said caused the team to change hotels, after Utah was eliminated by Gonzaga on March 26.

She described the incident, and the ensuing hotel switch, as a "distraction."

The incident occurred outside a restaurant near the team's hotel near Coeur d'Alene, where the team was staying prior to a game against Gonzaga due to a lack of hotel rooms around Spokane, per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press.

Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green told KSL.com's Josh Furlong that the women's basketball team, as well as members of the cheerleading team and band, heard racial slurs shouted from people in white trucks while they were entering and exiting a restaurant on March 21.

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said on its Facebook page on April 3 that police had found surveillance video and audio that "corroborates what was reported by members of the basketball program."

Initial review of the audio recordings revealed that a "clearly audible" racial slur was used more than once, the police department said.

Teams playing at Gonzaga weren't the only women's basketball competitors located a half hour's drive away from where the NCAA tournament was being played. The early-round locations for the women's tournament are locked in on Selection Sunday, as opposed to the men's neutral-location sites being selected in advance, Feinberg reported for the Associated Press.

The incident in Idaho could now spark a review of how host schools and hotel blocks are selected for the women's tournament. NCAA vice president for women's basketball Lynn Holzman told Feinberg the review could take place as soon as this year.