Berthoud High School foreign exchange student rescinds allegations about ‘hate crime’
BERTHOUD — A 15-year-old black German exchange student attending Berthoud High School has rescinded allegations that four white men assaulted her last month in what authorities labeled a hate crime.
The Berthoud Police Department doesn’t intend to press charges, however, Chief Glenn Johnson said, because it’s believed that the girl was revealing for the first time details of an alleged assault she suffered a few years ago in Germany.
“We’re not intending (on) prosecuting her,” Johnson said. “With violent crimes, it sometimes takes time for information to come out.”
And in this case, Johnson said, it took the girl at least three years to come forward to report the alleged attack.
The girl on April 12 reported the most-recent alleged assault to the Berthoud Police Department. She said four white men in their 20s cornered her while she was walking through Ellen Bunyan Bein Park, located next to the Berthoud High School on Spartan Avenue. They used intimidating and racial language, she alleged, and one man reportedly cut her face with a knife. … Read More