A white ex-Connecticut University student accused of a contaminating her black roommate’s belongings with body fluids has avoided hate crime charges, following a Hartford Supreme Court ruling Monday.
Civil rights activists are calling on the state to add hate crime to the list of charges against the former university student.
The court instead applied charges of criminal mischief and breach of peace to the case of Brianna Brochu, 18, of Harwinton, Conn. who publicly revealed she had been harassing her roommate Chennel “Jazzy” Rowe, rubbing used tampons on her backpack and put the girl’s toothbrush “where the sun don’t shine.”
Brochu pleaded guilty to the charges and continues to deny they stemmed from any racial prejudices.
Civil rights activists are calling on the state to add hate crime to the list of charges against the former university student.
University student Chennel Rowe took her story of harassment to Facebook. (Jazzy Rowe/ Facebook)
“We expect (the prosecutors) to fight on behalf of the people of our community. This is a hate crime. Let’s stop playing games. Let’s stop pushing this away,” said Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile to CBS News.
Petitions to add bigotry charges were also delivered to the prosecutor by West Hartford Police, however, this was ultimately overruled.
On hearing of Rowe’s plans to move out, Brochu described in an Instagram post how she had ambushed the “Jamaican Barbie”, licking her roommate’s plate and silverware, spitting in her coconut oil and adding mouldy clam dip to her lotions.
In a video shared on Facebook, Rowe complained of a severe throat pain she said she’d been battling months following her arrival on campus. The infection grew worse and she struggled to speak above a whisper and had trouble sleeping, she said, adding that physicians were unable to diagnose.
Brochu was expelled from campus and a “no contact” order was executed. Her alleged behavior was “reprehensible” and acts of “racism, bias, bullying and other abusive behavior” would not be tolerated, University President Greg Woodward said in October, following the post’s release.
The defendant’s attorney, Tom Stevens, states the incident has been taken out of proportion.
“I think that when it’s all said and done, what you’re going to see is that there was nothing racist that motivated this,” he said. “These were two students who were placed together … who didn’t like each other … and it escalated.”
The court will continue on Jan. 29 after further investigation.
Payback for a bitch like that comes from the heavens, not the courts.