“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” – George Orwell
A Coeur d’Alene man faces up to life in prison stemming from an alleged hate crime incident on Saturday.
Joel T. Diekhoff, 29, faces five years in jail and up to $5,000 on one count of felony malicious harassment – or hate crime. With two convicted felonies on his record, Diekhoff qualifies as a persistent offender, upping the possible incarceration term to life.
Magistrate Judge Penny Friedlander issued a $50,000 bond for Diekhoff, as well as a no-contract order with the alleged victim, Demetrius K. Lee, 39, during the suspect’s first court appearance Monday.
“The seriousness of the offense is significant here before the court,” the judge said. “I don’t think (the bond amount is) unreasonable.”
Diekhoff has two felonies on his record, including for theft in2000 and a felon in possession of firearms in Washington in2005.
Diekhoff told Friedlander that the harassment charge wasn’twarranted.
“I kind of feel like this thing is pretty out of line,” he toldthe judge. “I do have an 8-month-old daughter. I’m currentlyworking full time, I go to school full time, my fiancee ispregnant. I live a pretty normal life. I live right here in Coeurd’Alene. I’m not a threat to the community, I feel.”
Police reports of the incident vary.
Lee told officers while he was walking by Diekhoff’s apartment,on the 200 block of S. 19th Street, on his morning walk to SandersBeach, Diekhoff stared at him. When Lee walked back to his room atthe Lake Drive Motel a short time later, Diekhoff allegedly askedLee: “Are you (expletive) lost?”
Lee said Diekhoff had a small girl in his arms, and describedDiekhoff as having several tattoos, including a Swastikasymbol.
Lee asked Diekhoff what he had said and Diekhoff repeated it andused racial slurs toward Lee, who is African American.
When Lee asked Diekhoff if he was going to beat him up with achild in his arms, Diekhoff reportedly put the child back in theapartment and returned outside, according to police reports, and averbal confrontation ensued.
Other people from the apartment joined Diekhoff in his yard. Leethen ran to a nearby friend’s house to get a baseball bat, andreturned to the street corner.
“Usually I ignore it, it’s silly,” Lee, a cook, told The Pressabout the reported racial taunts. “It was dumb of me (to get thebat), my pride got in the way.”
After another argument, neighbors came outside, and Lee walkedback to his residence and called police, who arrested Diekhoffaround 11:30 that morning.
Diekhoff told officers he asked if Lee needed directions becauseLee had walked back and forth around the block, as though the manhad been lost, and had not swore at or threatened Lee.
Randi Tapia, Diekhoff’s fiancee, said Monday that Diekhoff isn’ta racist, and does not have Aryan ties. She said he is enrolled andworks at North Idaho College, which court records also state.
“He’s not Aryan, just because he has a tattoo does not make himAryan,” she said.
She said the neighborhood has had vandalism in the last sixweeks, the same time she’d noticed Lee and other new faces aroundthe neighborhood. People with loud music had been disturbing thepeace lately too, she said, which used to not be the case. She saidher fiancee wouldn’t do anything unless provoked.
“We’re a hardworking family and it’s not what it made it seemlike,” she said of the news coverage, adding that the bystandersweren’t threatening Lee, just watching the children in the yard.The Swastika tattoo, she added, doesn’t represent racism.
“It does not mean you’re Aryan Nation,” she said of the tattoo.”He’s had it a long time, and actually, it’s just a belief, it hasnothing to do with Aryan. It can mean several things actually. InChina, it means good luck. It can mean several things. But the copssaw that and took it as, whatever, I don’t know.”
Lee, who has been incarcerated for forgery in his past, said hemoved to Coeur d’Alene to escape gangs in southern California andto make a better life for his family. He said he has lived in thearea seven years and is moving his mixed-race children here. Hesaid his friends have been taunted at the 19th Street residence aswell. He said racism in Coeur d’Alene is confined to a small pocketpopulation, but seems to be growing recently, although thecommunity has supported him since news of the incident broke.
“I’ve never felt threatened like that (here),” he said. “Peopledon’t want that around here, it’s ignorance, it’s stupid.”
Diekhoff pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery earlier this yearin an unrelated case.