A Muslim student at the University of Michigan suspected of perpetrating a hate-crime hoax will not be charged. The Washtenaw County Prosecutors Office is not proceeding with any legal action — even though the Ann Arbor Police Department suspected the female student of fabricating the entire incident.
“This office has declined to authorize charges in that matter,” Chief Assistant Prosecutor Steven Hiller informed The College Fix via email. He further stated that his “office will not comment further on this case.”
The investigation began last November, when a female University of Michigan student reported being accosted by a white man who told her to remove her hijab or he would set her ablaze with a cigarette lighter. Police later said the accusation was false.
That didn’t prevent university’s pubic safety and security division from setting off alarm bells and calling the supposed incident an act of “hate and intimidation” and “ethnic intimidation.”
Just a month later, after Ann Arbor and university police conducted a joint investigation, the incident was deemed to be a fabrication. After carefully assessing witness testimony and available camera surveillance videos, the authorities found no evidence of an attack or threat.
According to the university police report: “During the course of the investigation, numerous inconsistencies in the statements provided by the alleged victim were identified. Following a thorough investigation, detectives have determined the incident in question did not occur. Police talked to businesses nearby and reviewed surveillance tapes in hopes of tracking down the suspect…no one witnessed the event, and the woman was never seen in any surveillance footage.”
The local Fox affiliate suggested, “The woman could be charged with filing a false police report. … The prosecutor’s office will be reviewing the case, which could include a felony charge because the crime she reported — ethnic intimidation — is a felony.”
Everyone involved in the investigation has declined comment. The election victory of President Donald Trump spawned numerous accounts of fake hate crimes, many of which fuel speculation about mounting “Islamophobia” in America.
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