NAACP asks for independent investigation into assault of black youth in Dietrich - East Idaho News
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NAACP asks for independent investigation into assault of black youth in Dietrich

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SALT LAKE CITY — The NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho-Nevada-Utah has asked the Idaho U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation into the assault of an African American youth football player by three white football players in Dietrich, which is about 34 miles northeast of Twin Falls.

John R.K. Howard, now 19, was originally charged with charged forcible penetration by a foreign object, but that charge was amended to a lesser charge of injury to a child in September.

Tanner Ward and a third 17-year-old male were also charged, and those cases were referred to the juvenile division.

According to court reports, the three white football players lured the victim — a mentally disabled, black, male teammate — into a locker room where Howard and the two other teammates attacked him and inserted a coat hanger in his rectum and kicked it in.

Howard and his lawyers claimed that another student forcibly penetrated the victim with the coat hanger and Howard accidentally kicked it in while trying to kick the victim.

According to his Alford plea submitted in December 2016, Howard did not admit to guilt, but conceded that evidence in the case would most likely lead to his conviction in the case. As part of the plea deal, Howard will not be required to register as a sex offender and he will do no jail time.

According to the plea deal, Howard will serve three years on probation and do 300 hours of community service.

A $10 million civil lawsuit against the school district claims the sexual assault was no one-off and that the act of violence followed months of harassment and racial abuse at the school.

The victim and his adopted siblings are the only black people in Dietrich, a town of about 350 people.

The suit claims that Howard forced the victim to learn a Ku Klux Klan song and hold a Confederate flag and even knocked him unconscious while teammates cheered.

According to the civil suit, the boy “was taunted and called racist names by other members of the team including, ‘Kool-Aid’ ‘chicken eater’ ‘watermelon’ and (the N-word),” the suit alleges.

In addition to Dietrich High School, the lawsuit a names 11 employees as defendants and claims that school administrators and coaches did nothing to stop the racial and physical abuse toward the vulnerable victim.

The Dietrich School District did not return calls Friday and neither did the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho-Nevada-Utah, said in a press release this week that Deputy Attorney General Casey Hemmer said that if the case had gone to trial, prosecutors would have proved that Howard kicked a coat hanger into the victim’s rectum after another football player put the hanger there.

However, Hemmer ruled that the assault was not a sex crime and that Howard did not deserve to suffer the consequences of a sex offender.

“It was egregious behavior,” Hemmer said. “It caused this victim a lot of suffering, but it is not, in my view, a sex crime, which is why the state has amended this charge. We don’t believe it’s appropriate for Mr. Howard to suffer the consequences of a sex offender. But he still needs to be held accountable.”

The NAACP alleges that Hemmer failed this young African American victim and that as a result, he was victimized twice.

“The NAACP alleges violation of civil rights against the white students involved and has requested the Idaho USDOJ to investigate whether the investigation in this case were consistent with the policies and procedures the office of Attorney General,” Williams said. “We would like the investigation to determine if such a heinous crime warrants community service and probation.”

Williams said that the NAACP has followed this case from the onset and prolonged its request to the U.S. Department of Justice until the investigation and court process was completed before filing its request.

This story was originally published in the Idaho State Journal. It is used here with permission.

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