Woman charged with Mountain View anti-Asian hate crime
For release on March 8, 2021
Contact:
Sheryl Leung
Deputy District Attorney
(650) 324-6411
Woman charged with Mountain View anti-Asian hate crime
A 39-year-old woman has been charged with a hate crime after she spit on a stranger having lunch in downtown Mountain View and told him to go back to “where you came from.”
Karen Marie Inman, of Greenbrae, faces possible incarceration if convicted of the misdemeanor and a charge of battery. Her arraignment is scheduled for this afternoon at 1:31 p.m. in Department 24 of the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
“Our community stands together against any hatred and racism against the Asian Pacific Islander community,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “It is ignorant. It is wrong. And when it is criminal - those who are charged will face the full power of my Office to hold them accountable.”
On February 13, 2021, the 36-year-old victim was eating outside with a friend near Castro and Villa streets when Inman approached him and, unprovoked, spat on him. She then used an ethnic slur.
A fellow diner, who had seen the defendant approach other people of Asian descent in the area but did not know how she spoke with them, called police.
Attacks against the Asian Pacific Islander community have risen during the pandemic, driven in part by false political rhetoric blaming Asian-Americans for the outbreak.
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