Four Individuals Indicted for Racially-Motivated Assault in Nampa, Idaho

The U.S. Department of Justice reports in its press release (quotation, not an independent finding): “WASHINGTON – Four individuals have been arrested and charged with carrying out a racially-motivated beating and conspiring to interfere with the civil rights of an African-American man in Nampa, Idaho. The indictment, returned on Feb. 11, 2009, by a federal grand jury in the District of Idaho, was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King of the Civil Rights Division; U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Moss for the District of Idaho; Timothy J. Fuhrman, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office; and Chief Bill Augsburger of the Nampa Police Department. The indictment alleges that on July 4, 2008, Michael J. Bullard, Jennifer J. Hartpence, a/k/a Jennifer J. Erickson, Richard C. Armstrong and James D. Whitewater, encountered an African-American man inside a Wal-Mart Supercenter store. As the defendants left the store, they discussed beating this African-American man and made preparations for the attack. When the African-American man left the store, the defendants allegedly threatened him, called him racial slurs and Bullard asked him what country he thought he was in. The African-American man tried to run away, but Bullard, Armstrong and Whitewater allegedly chased him across the store’s parking lot, where they tackled him and repeatedly hit and kicked him. "Hate crimes tear at the very fabric of our great nation and we must remain vigilant in our efforts to combat them," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King. "We are well past the time in Idaho when a person’s race, color, religion or ethnicity can be the basis for an assault," sai”