Hate crime alleged regarding threat to kill transgender woman in downtown Bellingham
A Bellingham woman was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of a hate crime and felony harassment of a transgender woman just days before this weekend’s Pride in Bellingham festivities.
Johnye K. Springer, 38, was being held without bail late Tuesday at the Whatcom County Jail, where she was booked just before noon in connection with an altercation outside a building near the corner of Cornwall Avenue and York Street, Bellingham Police Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald.
Murphy said the incident began shortly after 11 a.m. when the victim, a 39-year-old trans woman from Maple Falls, was cleaning trash behind the building when she encountered Springer, who has been issued a trespass notice from the property.
When the victim asked Springer to leave, Springer threatened to stab the victim, and yelled racial and anti-trans slurs, Murphy said.
“The victim was placed in reasonable fear for her life with these threats and believed them to be credible given what she was witnessing,” Murphy said. “When officers were contacting Springer, she continued to refer to the victim by very derogatory slurs related to sexual orientation and race.”
The victim, who was not physically harmed, was wearing an ID badge with pins and buttons indicating her gender identity, Murphy said.
“Springer maliciously and intentionally made threats to stab and hurled insults at the victim for her gender expression and/or identity,” she said.
It’s the threat of violence that made the situation a hate crime under Washington state law, which protects people because of their “race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or mental, physical, or sensory disability.”
According to Whatcom County Superior Court records, Springer is a facing an Aug. 26 trial in connection with a March 10 incident at St. Joseph Medical center emergency room, where she is accused of making threats to kill or injure the relative of a patient.
