Investigators not calling alleged beating ?hate crime?

Fairfield police and Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation today are continuing an investigation into an incident that has been tagged as a ?hate crime.?

?We?re not calling it a hate crime until we determine exactly what happened,? said Jefferson County Attorney Tim Dille this morning.

Usama Alshaibi, age 41, of Fairfield, an Arab-American filmmaker, claims he was beaten and called derogatory racial names after he walked into a party early Sunday morning.

The Ledger has received information that the party Alshaibi claims to have went to was a social gathering of five 16- and 17-year-old teenagers on the second-floor of a private residence, where a parent was home sleeping. At least one of the teens and her mother had met with investigators about the incident.

Dille said DCI officials are conducting interviews today of people involved.

?We?re trying to determine ourselves what happened so we can make an informed decision on whether or not to file any charges,? he said.

Dille did not know when the interviews would be completed.

Alshaibi said as he was walking home from Vivo?s Restaurant, he entered a home looking for a party after a blonde woman outside told him it was upstairs. He claims that after he told partygoers that his name was Usama, he was punched in the face, kicked in the head and beaten by four men before he was able to get away to the Family Video parking lot at Burlington Avenue and Ninth Street.

Josh Helton, the manager of Family Video, told The Associated Press he called 911 at 12:19 a.m. Sunday after he saw two men on the ground in the store parking lot crying and a woman across the street who may have been with them. He said he also heard screaming.

The police report released Monday said Helton reported seeing a man and a woman fighting as if it were a domestic situation, but made no mention of the second man Helton said he saw. Alshaibi and his friend Manuel Tsingaris said Tsingaris was the man at the scene, but both denied there was a woman there.

Alshaibi could not remember which house he had been in, but investigators located it after interviewing neighbors in a four-block area near the store.

Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy has cautioned against a rush to judgment until the facts are established.

For complete story, read the Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Fairfield Ledger.