In yet another hate hoax that wasted the time and money of state and federal law enforcement, police in Madison, Wisconsin, have concluded that nothing happened to a biracial woman who claimed she was set ablaze by fraternity boys in June.
Althea Bernstein reported the “hate crime” to cops on June 24 and landed in the hospital.
Immediately, the gendarmes in Madison were on the lookout for a rampaging group of nightriding racist whites. Federal gumshoes joined the manhunt.
But the combined power of the two agencies turned up nothing.
And yet another ludicrous claim in the benighted place called Trump’s America went poof.
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The Claim
But that’s hardly a surprise given the yarn Bernstein wove for police.
It was 1 a.m., Madison.com reported, when Bernstein stopped at a red light in her brother’s 2007 Hyundai Elantra:
[S]he heard the voices of what she described as college-aged men calling her a “N***er.”
She told police that one of the men sprayed a fluid, which hospital staff believe to have been lighter fluid, on her face, and then used a lighter to light her on fire. Bernstein suffered burns on the side of her face, and was able to put the flames out and managed to drive herself to the safety of her mother’s home.
The head of the area Boys and Girls Club knew what was afoot:
“She was minding her own business and sitting in a car and someone decided to pour fluid on her face and light her on fire,” Michael Johnson said. “That’s a hate crime. They targeted her for the color of her skin.”
Bernstein’s family has been in communication with Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s office. Johnson said the family is seeking help from the U.S. Department of Justice to make sure that when these individuals are apprehended they are charged with a hate crime.
“It’s got to be tough to be a mother and for something like that to happen to your daughter,” Johnson continued. “Where’s the humanity in situations like this? I hope these individuals are apprehended and I’m just sorry this has happened to her.”
Even worse, it was “frat boys,” just like the ones who perpetrated the fictitious gang rape at University of Virginia in 2014.
Two of the white goons wore “floral shirts” and jeans, while two others dressed like ninjas. They wore all black, and masks. “The man who allegedly sprayed her was wearing a ‘salmon-colored’ floral shirt, she told police,” Madison.com reported.
It sounds as if the university golf team attacked Bernstein, but that aside, the horror story went global. The British royal family “reached out” to her.
Another Hoax
Maybe the British royal family should have offered the services of Scotland Yard to help find “salmon-colored”-shirt wearing racists in Madison.
“After an exhaustive probe, detectives were unable to corroborate or locate evidence consistent with what was reported,” the police chief said.
That “exhaustive probe” included viewing footage from 17 surveillance cameras across downtown Madison. They didn’t film any groups of white men. Bernstein’s Elantra did not show fire damage, and accelerant-sniffing dogs didn’t detect even a whiff of lighter fluid.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Wester District of Wisconsin put it this way:
After a thorough investigation into the events of June 24, 2020, including extensive interviews, exhaustive review of traffic and surveillance video, and expert review of digital and forensic evidence, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove that a violation of any federal criminal statute occurred. Further, after reviewing all available evidence, authorities could not establish that the attack, as alleged by the complainant, had occurred. Accordingly, the federal investigation into this incident has been closed based on the lack of evidence. .
So state and federal authorities, who spent who knows how much money on a hunt for imaginary racists, were hoaxed.
But all is well for the college girl who wants to be a firefighter, Madison.com reported.
Despite the investigation’s findings, acting Madison Police Chief Vic Wahl said his department is not recommending Bernstein be charged with obstructing an officer, which can apply in cases in which a person makes a false police report. … Wahl said he doubted it would pursue charges against Bernstein, either.
Wahl said there is a difference between actively trying to deceive law enforcement and law enforcement not being able to corroborate a report of a crime, and he said Bernstein and her family have been cooperative. …
“We were unable to corroborate (Bernstein’s story), but we are not speculating on what did and did not happen,” he said. He also confirmed that Bernstein’s injuries were consistent with being burned, and said she has offered no “alternative explanation” for what happened to her.
