DWU athlete accuses men of hate crime in lawsuit
Posted: Friday, August 22, 2008
SIOUX FALLS (AP) -- A black basketball player for Dakota Wesleyan University has accused three Mitchell men of violating hate crime law and conspiring to commit assault and battery.
In April, Mitchell police said officers were alerted early one morning to a large group of people fighting outside the Comfort Inn. Police said Ikanna Muoneke of Houston and three others were hurt, although they were not seriously injured.
Gary Bussmus and sons Kyle Bussmus and Jonathan Bussmus, were named in Muoneke's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
The suit claims the fight began when Gary Bussmus hit him in the face without provocation outside Blarney's Pub in Mitchell and that the defendants, who are white, directed racial slurs at Muoneke and his friends.
Muoneke said Gary Bussmus grabbed him from behind, spun him around and hit him while he and his friends were walking across a parking lot. Bussmus' sons, Kyle and Jonathan, joined in the assault, the legal papers said.
Racial ephthets the men allegedly used against Muoneke demonstrated "a racial hatred ... and a racial premeditation for the assault," according to the lawsuit.
The assault forced Muoneke, then a junior, to interrupt and possibly discontinue his education at DWU, the complaint said.
The lawsuit asks for punitive and exemplary damages.
In April, Mitchell police said officers were alerted early one morning to a large group of people fighting outside the Comfort Inn. Police said Ikanna Muoneke of Houston and three others were hurt, although they were not seriously injured.
Gary Bussmus and sons Kyle Bussmus and Jonathan Bussmus, were named in Muoneke's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
The suit claims the fight began when Gary Bussmus hit him in the face without provocation outside Blarney's Pub in Mitchell and that the defendants, who are white, directed racial slurs at Muoneke and his friends.
Muoneke said Gary Bussmus grabbed him from behind, spun him around and hit him while he and his friends were walking across a parking lot. Bussmus' sons, Kyle and Jonathan, joined in the assault, the legal papers said.
Racial ephthets the men allegedly used against Muoneke demonstrated "a racial hatred ... and a racial premeditation for the assault," according to the lawsuit.
The assault forced Muoneke, then a junior, to interrupt and possibly discontinue his education at DWU, the complaint said.
The lawsuit asks for punitive and exemplary damages.
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