Prosecutors: Not enough evidence to prove Wisconsin attackThere’s not enough evidence to prove that a group of white men set a young biracial woman on fire during a chaotic night of protests in Wisconsin’s capital city this summer, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Detectives were unable to find any surveillance video that shows the alleged attack taking place, but they did find footage indicating the woman wasn’t in the city at the time she says she was attacked, according to investigative reports.Althea Bernstein, 18, told police she was attacked by four white men while driving through a protest in downtown Madison around 1 a.m. on June 24. Bernstein said she was stopped at a red light when she heard someone yell a racial slur and one of the men sprayed her with lighter fluid through her open window and threw a flaming lighter at her, setting her neck and face on fire.
She drove away, put out the flames, and was treated for burns at a hospital, she said.
A team of federal, state and local investigators probed the allegations as a possible hate crime. On Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office in Madison issued a statement saying the investigation was closed without charges filed.
The statement said investigators conducted extensive interviews as well as an exhaustive review of traffic and surveillance cameras as well as digital and forensic evidence, and couldn’t establish that the attack occurred.
Madison Acting Police Chief Vic Wahl issued his own statement, saying detectives were unable to “locate evidence consistent with what was reported.”
Bernstein’s family issued a three-sentence statement through the Madison Police Department saying they appreciate investigators’ work.
“Althea Bernstein and her family appreciate the detailed investigative efforts by all involved this case,” the statement said. “Althea’s injuries are healing and the support of our community has been invaluable in that regard. We continue to maintain our family privacy and will not be granting interviews at this time.”
https://apnews.com/article/madison-wisconsin-archive-crime-a04d7127e7ee746e5bc206287c551a11