Hate crime verdict: Not guilty

COEUR d’ALENE — A Hayden man accused of a felony hate crime was acquitted by a jury Thursday after six hours of deliberation spanning two days.

The jury found Richard Sovenski, 52, not guilty of malicious harassment, but guilty of a misdemeanor charge of battery for an incident last summer in which Sovenski was filmed in a McDonald’s parking lot screaming obscenities and slurs at teenagers in a church youth group.

In a three-day trial in Coeur d’Alene this week that included two days of testimony, prosecutors and members of the group painted Sovenski as an unhinged racist whose actions affirmed the stereotype of an angry Idaho redneck.

Deputy prosecutor Arthur Verharen said Stovenski yelled “n----r,” “fags,” and “halfbreeds” at the teenagers and their adult supervisors after an exchange in McDonald’s that ended up in the parking lot.

Because the church youths were comprised of African American and Hispanic teens, Verharen told the jury no other conclusion was possible except to find Sovenski guilty of the hate crime.

“That’s how you know he had specific intent,” Verharen said. “Because what he said, and who he said it to.”

Defense attorney Michael Palmer, however, showed the jury a beleaguered construction foreman who was dealing with family issues including his wife’s health — she had just completed her ninth shoulder surgery — as well as on-the-job stress when he stopped for beers before heading to McDonald’s after work. It was his first meal after a 13-hour work day.

Sovenski found himself surrounded by unruly and unapologetic teens, Palmer said, and he snapped at one of them, a white 22-year-old youth leader whom Sovenski said smarted off as he walked out of McDonald’s.

“What we had here was a guy in a particular moment in time who was on the ragged edge, completely frayed,” Palmer said after the verdict. “He just snapped. What he said was completely inexcusable, but he didn’t get into it because of race.”

Palmer credited jurors who deliberated two days before reaching the verdict. Any criticism of the verdict, he said, would be a disservice to those 11 men and women.

“(They) clearly spent a lot of time listening to all of the evidence, deliberating on both sides … positions on the case, and then applying the law to the facts,” he said.

Jurors watched a half dozen videos and heard from 14 witnesses before rendering a verdict.

District Judge Scott Wayman called for a sentencing hearing within 30 days of Thursday’s verdict.