A visiting psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College was formally charged by prosecutors Monday in connection with an alleged hate-crime hoax that had triggered antiracism protests and a one-day shutdown of the Claremont Colleges in March.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged Kerri Dunn, 39, with one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and two felony counts of insurance fraud.
Prosecutors alleged Dunn had falsely reported that an unknown vandal spray-painted her car with racist and anti-Semitic slurs on March 9, while she attended a campus forum on racism. Officials also said Dunn submitted a false insurance claim, never paid, for items supposedly taken from her 1990 Honda Civic and for damage to the car, which had its windows smashed and tires slashed.
Dunn is scheduled to surrender to authorities at Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona on May 19, the date of her arraignment.
If convicted, Dunn could face probation to up to three years in state prison, prosecutors said.
In a statement, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said: "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. And those who make false claims should realize there is a penalty for doing so."
Reached by phone Monday at her home in Redlands, Dunn declined to comment.
Her lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, also declined to be interviewed. But he issued a news release saying that Dunn "maintains her innocence and hopes that this case will not divert attention from the racism problems on the Claremont College campuses."
The incident, which drew national attention, is among the latest of more than 20 suspected or confirmed hate-crime hoaxes on American college campuses since the late 1990s. Police concluded a week after the Claremont Colleges incident that it was a hoax staged by Dunn, but no charges were lodged until Monday.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said that federal authorities were continuing to investigate the case and that Dunn could face federal charges of making false statements to FBI investigators who had worked on the case.
When the damage to Dunn's car originally was reported, she and student activists linked the incident to a string of racially charged episodes on the Claremont campuses. Earlier this year, four students stole an 11-foot cross from an art class and set it afire. Later, a student discovered a racial slur written on a picture of George Washington Carver, a black agricultural scientist.
