Did Claremont professor fake anti-Semitism against herself? 4 comments

17 Jun 2006 @ 19:02, by D Did Claremont professor fake anti-Semitism against herself? Friday March 26, 2004 Claremont (ap) | A Claremont college professor who claimed she was targeted in an anti-Semitic hate crime that provoked campus protests denied police allegations that she staged the vandalism. "This is like a very big deal if they think I’m a suspect," Kerri F. Dunn, a visiting professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College and Jewish convert from Catholicism, told the Los Angeles Times. "I didn’t want any of this from the beginning. This is so overshadowing the bigger problem on campus, which is that the administration has turned its head regularly on hate speech and hate crimes." She reported on Tuesday, March 9, that while she was speaking at a campus forum on racial intolerance, her car was spray-painted with anti-Semitic and racial slurs, the tires slashed and the windows broken. But police said two witnesses came forward with allegations that Dunn did it herself. Police said Dunn gave inconsistent statements during two interviews conducted jointly by the Claremont Police Department and the FBI. Police said they forwarded their findings to the district attorney’s office. The FBI was considering whether or not to press charges against Dunn, though she was not taken into custody. The alleged hate crime was seen as the latest in a rash of recent hate incidents, including a burning of a cross used in an art project and the writing of racial slurs on a calendar. It galvanized this close-knit college community known for its rigorous academics, with faculty canceling classes and students holding a day of rallies that culminated in a large protest at Claremont McKenna College where Dunn spoke. "This was a well-planned-out act of terrorism," she told a crowd of some 2,500 students during the demonstration on Wednesday, March 10. Students and faculty were shocked by the new allegations. "She basically insulted this whole school and embarrassed us all. She kind of tricked us," Glen Kim, 21, said last week. "I don’t know what to think. I can’t explain why she did this." Dunn Faces One Year in Prison, Still Claims Innocence February 11, 2005 by Jay Antenen Claremont McKenna’s most infamous former professor is finally doing time. Last December, a judge convicted Kerri Dunn, 40, on two felony charges of attempted insurance fraud and one charge of filing a false police report, and sentenced her to one year in state prison. The judge ordered Dunn to pay $20,000 to CMC as restitution. On March 9, 2004, the former psychology professor faked a hate crime that led to the cancellation of classes at the Claremont Colleges. Dunn spray-painted racial, misogynist, and anti-Semitic epithets on her Honda hatchback and then broke the car’s windows. The incident led to mass protest rallies the next day in support of Dunn, but it emerged a week later that the hate crime was a hoax when two witnesses came forward. Throughout the court proceedings, Pomona Superior Court Judge Charles Horan had harsh words for Dunn. He called her a “bald faced liar” during a September sentencing hearing after Dunn refused to admit guilt. At the December hearing, Horan said Dunn had “severe mental illness,” according to media reports. Dunn continues to maintain her innocence and is apparently still planning to appeal her convictions, even though her defense council, Gary Lincenberg, no longer represents her. “I think pretending to be a victim is quite disgusting, but that’s not what we’re dealing with here,” Dunn told a local TV station in September. “This was no bizarre attempt on my part. I am innocent of the charges that I was charged with and ultimately convicted of.” At a hearing last September, Lincenberg told Horan that the former CMC professor could not afford to hire an attorney for the appeal. In a statement Monday to The Student Life, Lincenberg said he did not know the status of the appeal. Deputy Prosecutor Martin Bean, who had tried Dunn, did not return phone calls seeking comment. For now, at least, Dunn remains in jail.

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