Jury Bypasses Racial Harassment Charge Instead, St. Maries Man Found Guilty Of Misdemeanor Battery

Kenneth Blair keeps his emotions tucked inside when he’s the target of racial slurs.

But the 20-year-old black man didn’t hide his disappointment Wednesday with a decision handed down by a Benewah County jury.

The all-white jury said a man who taunted and attacked Blair was guilty only of misdemeanor battery. Jurors had been asked to find him guilty of malicious harassment, a stronger charge designed to discourage racial harassment.

“It kind of makes me feel like it’s OK for that kind of stuff to happen,” Blair said after the trial ended.

Michael Bell, a convicted felon with the words “White Power” tattooed on his arms, was the first person in Benewah County to be charged with malicious harassment.

He attacked Blair as he walked down the street with a white woman, according to police reports.

The Idaho Legislature adopted the malicious harassment law in 1983, making it a felony to attack someone physically, verbally or symbolically on the basis of their race or religion.

Conviction can land a person in prison for up to five years.

Bell’s attorney told the jury Wednesday that although Bell did punch the young man, he did not intend to harass him because he is black.

“If there had been a white man there, he would have been socked in the nose, too,” said Richard McFadden.

Blair said he was walking down Third Street in St. Maries on July 18, 1994, with Yolanda Pullman, also of St. Maries.

Bell, who had previously dated Pullman, walked up behind them and asked the woman, “What are you doing with this nigger?” Blair told police.

“He was drunk so I thought I’d just let it go,” Blair said.

Bell told Blair he didn’t like “niggers” and told him to go back where he came from, according to a St. Maries Police report.

He then punched the black man in the face, splitting open his lip and knocking him to the ground.

In a jail interview last September, Bell said he doesn’t have anything against black people. He said he was just upset because his girlfriend seemed to be cheating on him.

“When you’re of a frame of mind that you’re going to sock a guy in the nose, you’re going to use any derogatory term that comes to mind,” McFadden said.

The lawyer told the jury they should not convict a man of such a serious crime just because he punched someone.

“Don’t punish a guy for being a jerk,” he said. “We have an unfortunate incident. It’s an unpleasant case. It’s not that great big a deal.”

The jury instead chose to convict Bell of battery. He could be sentenced to up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Blair feels the jury’s decision sends the wrong message.

Very few African Americans live in the small town of St. Maries. Although many people there are cordial to him, Blair said it isn’t unusual for people to call him derogatory names.

“It’s something I’m used to,” he said. “It’s kind of demoralizing.

“This kind of attitude is kind of old,” Blair said. “If we’re going to be a great nation, we’ve got to do something besides hate ourselves, because that’s what we’re doing.”

From January to June 1994, 40 malicious harassment incidents were reported to Idaho authorities, according to the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment.

There are no figures available yet for the last half of 1994 or for this year. In all of 1993, 69 such incidents were reported.