County attorney: No charges filed in Alshaibi assault incident

The Jefferson County Attorney Office will not be filing any charges in the assault reported by Arab-American Usama Alshaibi of Fairfield.

The final report released this morning regarding the March 6 assault stated, ?It is our opinion that no charges should be filed in this situation as the facts do not demonstrate criminal behavior beyond a reasonable doubt.?

Alshaibi had reported to Fairfield police he was assaulted by four young men and called derogatory racial slurs when he walked into a party and told them his name in the early morning of March 6, but he could not remember where the incident took place.

The Fairfield Police Department, with the help of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations, conducted an investigation involving interviews and discussions with dozens of people. The county attorney?s office reviewed more than 20 written statements and watched a dozen recorded interviews, reviewed photographs and medical records and had countless discussions with the primary investigators.

Based on the information, the county attorney?s office pieced together a timeline of events:

March 5, Alshaibi and his friend Manuel Tsingaris went to Vivo?s between 8:30 and 9 p.m., where they drank alcoholic beverages. About midnight, they left to walk home. They walked west on West Broadway Avenue to either Eighth or Ninth street, where they turned north and at either Broadway or Briggs they separated. Alshaibi lives in the 1100 block of West Briggs Avenue and was only a few blocks from his home.

Alshaibi claims to have heard music as he was walking toward his house. As he approached the music, he claims to have met a young woman who told him the party was upstairs. Although the officers were unable to canvas the area immediately, they did check the neighborhood within the hour after the assault report was received and were unable to locate any noticeable music in the area. Throughout the investigation, the police were unable to verify or identify the young woman, and as a result, the county attorney?s office cannot say with any certainty whether there was any music or whether there was any young woman.

The attorneys say what is clear is that Alshaibi got himself turned around and walked in the opposite direction of his home. Around 12:15 a.m., he entered a home at near South Fifth Street and Burlington Avenue, the residence of Joshua Bishop and his teenage son Gabe.

Joshua Bishop was asleep on the couch in the living room while Gabe Bishop was upstairs in his room with four friends: Samantha Fischer, Brian Jennings, Heath Nevins and Blaze Strickland. Nevins is 20 years old and all the others were under 18.

They reported they had just finished watching a movie when they heard footsteps on the stairs. They thought they had awakened Joshua Bishop, and they were going to be in trouble, but the footsteps stopped just outside of the closed door and they could see a shadow under the door.

The door was opened a crack, either by Gabe Bishop or by Alshaibi, and they said hi to each other. The door was opened further, and Alshaibi was able to look into the room and the other kids were able to see him.

Gabe Bishop told him goodbye in an attempt to get him to leave. Alshaibi backed out of the room, and Gabe shut the door.

The teenagers heard footsteps downstairs, but did not hear the door. They went downstairs and found Alshaibi standing in the dark living room. He asked Fischer what she was doing later that night. The kids, especially the two girls, reported the question was creepy and made them uncomfortable. They also reported Alshaibi never took his right hand out of his coat pocket, which made them a little nervous.

The county attorney?s office also believes the content of the movie the kids had just watched added to their concern about a person in the house. They had just watched ?The Stranger,? which is a horror/suspense movie about a young couple terrorized by three home invaders.

When Alshaibi still did not leave, Jennings grabbed him by the lapel and pinned him against the doorframe as he opened the door. Once Jennings had the door was open, he spun Alshaibi around and forcefully shoved him out. It appears Jennings used his hands and a foot to force Alshaibi out the door.

The kids said when Alshaibi was thrown out, he fell and landed face first. As he tried to regain his feet, he fell again, this time down the stairs landing on a concrete landing. They then shut the door and watched him through the door and windows. The kids also said he fell at least one more time as he was walking away to the north when he stepped in a pothole in the alley next to the house.

The kids said after Alshaibi was outside, they asked him why he was there and what his name was. When he said his name was Usama, the kids responded, although they report they thought he was joking. Alshaibi reported he told the partygoers his name inside the house on the second floor, and that as soon as he told them his name, he was hit and beaten by four young men. His glasses were knocked off, and it was hard for him to see. He reported attempting to protect his face with his arms. He reports he continued to be struck as he was trying to get out of the residence.

The investigation reveals the only physical contact inside the house was when Jennings threw Alshaibi out of the house. This is corroborated by the fact that Joshua Bishop did not wake up when Alshaibi was inside the house even though the front door accessed the room he was sleeping in. In addition, no blood was found inside the residence. It was not possible for Alshaibi to have been beaten by four young men, as there were only three present. All of the kids report Alshaibi had his glasses on when he was thrown out of the house. Finally, Alshaibi did not have any injuries on his arms. Those types of injuries would be expected if he were protecting his face and head with his arms and are commonly called defensive wounds.

The investigation further revealed a high likelihood the kids followed Alshaibi outside after he was thrown out because it is unlikely they could have seen him fall multiple times from inside. Plus, Joshua Bishop reported he woke up when the kids came back into the house. It is likely Alshaibi heard some very harsh language at that time. It is unknown when he lost his glasses. Strickland remembers hearing him ask where his glasses were after he fell outside near the stairs. However, Alshaibi?s glasses were not located until March 10 lying on the ground next to the sidewalk in the 500 block of West Broadway next to a green sweater. Alshaibi reported losing a green sweater sometime during or after the altercation.

Alshaibi eventually walked to the parking lot of Family Video, about one-half block south and four blocks west of the Bishop residence. Once there, he called Tsingaris on his cell phone, and Tsingaris walked to the parking lot. As the two were there, the video store manager placed a 911 call at 12:19 a.m. and reported one male and one female in the parking lot crying and screaming. Officers arrived in one minute and found Alshaibi and Tsingaris.

The county attorney office?s final report stated it is their opinion no charges should be filed, as the facts do not demonstrate criminal behavior beyond a reasonable doubt.

?To prove assault we must show that a person did an act intending to cause pain or injury to another and that that act was done without justification,? states the report. ?In this case the only person who we can prove made contact with Mr. Alshaibi was Mr. Jennings. Mr. Jennings did not do anything intending to hurt or injure Mr. Alshaibi. On the contrary Mr. Jennings was just trying to get Mr. Alshaibi out of the house. It is also difficult to know how Mr. Alshaibi received his injuries. It would clearly be assault if the injuries were a result of a beating. Here it is just as likely that the injuries were caused by the multiple falls outside of the home. If the evidence is not clear, we cannot prove a crime took place.?

The report also states it appears Jennings was justified in his behavior. Iowa law recognizes the ?castle doctrine,? which states a person has no duty to retreat from his residence. Rather, a person has the right to protect themselves inside their own house. The only requirement is the act be reasonable. Jennings did not use a weapon or anything excessive. He simply pushed Alshaibi out of the Bishop home after hearing Gabe Bishop say he was not welcome and should leave.

The final report states there has been much public discussion of the incident as a possible hate crime.

?A hate crime is not a separate offense,? explains the report. ?It is an additional series of elements that must be proven to enhance a crime. Since we don?t have an assault or any other crime, we can?t have a hate crime. Even if we had the evidence to file some charge, we would not file a hate crime enhancement under these facts. A primary element of a hate crime is that the crime was committed because of the victim?s race, national origin, ancestry, or other listed characteristics. In this case the only physical contact was motivated by the desire to get an uninvited guest out of the house. It is our belief that this physical contact would have happened to any person regardless of national origin or race.?

The Jefferson County Attorney Office also found possible trespass or public intoxication charges against Alshaibi were not appropriate.

?To prove a trespass, we must show that Mr. Alshaibi entered the house without permission with the intent to commit an offense,? states the report. ?Mr. Alshaibi has consistently stated that he met a woman who told him where the party was and that he took her comments as an invitation. Although that young woman cannot be identified or even verified, it is clear that Mr. Alshaibi believed himself to be invited. He did not have any intent to commit any offense inside the home. He was not looking through drawers or attempting to take or damage anything.

?He could also be charged with trespassing if he remained on the property after being told to leave. It is clear that he was told to leave. It is also clear that he walked downstairs following that statement where he was found just standing in the living room. By all accounts. it was dark and a very little time passed before he was thrown out. Mr. Alshaibi was not given the time to demonstrate he was simply ignoring the request to leave. He just as likely was unable to find the door in the dark and only was able to get out when he was shoved out.?

As for public intoxication, Alshaibi was never tested to determine his level of intoxication.

?We believe it would have been inappropriate to have done so,? said the report. ?When officers encountered him in the Family Video parking lot, he was clearly bleeding from the head and had sustained some injury. He was complaining of an assault and was obviously of age to legally consume alcohol. He was treated as a victim as he should have been.?

Although not an element of any crime, the county attorney office also considered the motivation for the requested charges. No one at the Bishop house called the police to report an intruder. The kids indicated that it was creepy and weird, but also over pretty quickly, and they felt like they handled it. Once it was clear that the police were trying to find the location where the incident occurred, the police still were not contacted by anyone who had been at the Bishop residence. Only after the police found them and invited them to be interviewed was there a suggestion that Alshaibi should be charged with something.

?There are also problems with the information that would be fatal if we pursued prosecution,? states the report. ?Mr. Alshaibi has been very cooperative and understanding throughout this investigation. However his version of the events is full of gaps potentially caused by his injuries, his alcohol consumption, and the trauma he feels from that night. These gaps leave room for other reasonable explanations and make prosecution impossible.?

The report also states that although there has public speculation that this was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Alshaibi, there is zero evidence of that.

?He presents as very sincere, and it is our belief that he is simply hoping to fill in some of the gaps for himself so he can have a better understanding of what happened,? states the report.

The report states another problem is the amount of publicity on the incident.

?The Internet had both a positive and negative impact on this investigation. Officers were able to determine the location of this incident as a result of postings on social networking sites. That helped officers focus on the correct neighborhood and interview the right people. On the negative side, the kids had read the claims made by Mr. Alshaibi and discussed them before they were ever interviewed. That creates the possibility of the kids trying to get their story straight before meeting with the police. There are some obvious inconsistencies in all the stories that cannot be reconciled with the known facts. The publicity also caused the kids to want to rebut what they had read rather than simply giving a statement. These are all factors that were considered in reviewing the evidence and considering how any information may be presented and attacked in a trial,? states the report.

With the release of the report, the Jefferson County Attorney Office considers the matter closed unless further, undiscovered evidence is found.