One of the women initially charged with malicious harassment in connection with an alleged antisemitic incident last month has had her case dismissed, while the other plans to plead not guilty at her arraignment in Ada County court on Monday. Hannah Tucker, 28, and Crystal Grosenbach, 38, were arrested July 4 on allegations that they verbally and physically accosted a kippah-wearing Jewish man while chanting pro-Palestinian slogans in downtown Boise. Tucker, the only person against whom charges still stand, is accused of striking the man in the nose with her cell phone.
At a preliminary hearing on Aug. 2, the alleged victim, Douglas Pearlstein, testified about the events of that night, which occurred outside Diablo & Sons Saloon, where he and his wife were eating on the patio. “We were eating dinner and we heard chanting, and that chanting is consistent with the verbiage that pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas protesters are using,” Pearlstein told the court.
“I heard ‘free, free Palestine,' ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' ‘you’re killing babies, are you OK with killing babies,' ‘America will fall, Israel will fall.’” During direct examination with prosecutor David Swenson, Pearlstein identified Tucker and Grosenbach as the two protesters he said he encountered that night. They wore keffiyehs — the traditional Arab scarf commonly used as a symbol of resistance against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and Israel’s war on Gaza, launched after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct.
7. Pearlstein told the court that keffiyehs ‘say hatred against Jews,’ but was not asked and did not specify what that meant. Pearlstein said that as Tucker and Grosenbach drew closer to the patio, he told them that their presence was unappreciated and that they should leave.
After verbally arguing back and forth, he said, others in the area began to interject, and the two left around the corner before returning a couple of minutes later. He began to feel fear and anger. “[On the news], I’ve seen these individuals [pro-Palestinian demonstrators] come back en masse and surround Jews on college campuses, and that’s what I thought was happening to me, that they were sending reinforcements,” Pearlstein said.
“I also was thinking, when I heard ‘free Palestine,' the term ‘Judenfrei,' which is German for ‘free of Jews.’ Which is what the Nazis chanted when they entered a town called Międzyrzec in Poland, where my family was deported to Treblinka [concentration camp] and murdered.” He said that he began to move toward Tucker and Grosenbach on the sidewalk out of concern for his wife’s safety and fear that more protesters might be coming.
“[Tucker] shoved a cell phone out, put it in my face, hit me in my face,” Pearlstein said. “Then we had verbal exchanges, yelling at each other, and then the police arrived.” Pearlstein described “a knot” on the left side of his nose with mild swelling, that formed as a result of the altercation, and said that he believed the protesters returned because he told them to leave while being visibly Jewish.
During cross examination with Tucker and Grosenbach’s attorney, Mike French, he stated that he believed Tucker intentionally struck him with her phone. The defense maintains that contact between Tucker’s phone and Pearlstein was accidental when Pearlstein moved his head, and that he had been “swiping” at her phone before it happened, which they claim is corroborated by video evidence. After Pearlstein’s testimony, Judge David Manweiler dismissed Grosenbach’s charges.
“[Idaho Code, Section 18-7902] lists out some specifics as to how [malicious harassment] can be met. One is to cause physical injury to another person. That is alleged in the complaints,” Manweiler said.
“I do find that with respect to Defendant Tucker, the state’s carried its burden of probable cause in this case to bind her over to the district court. However, I do not find that the state’s carried its burden of probable cause on Ms. Grosenbach.
” Tucker will be arraigned before Judge Annie McDevitt on Aug. 12, and intends to plead not guilty. She remains out on $25,000 bond.
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