Kaila White, and Amy B Wang

The Republic | azcentral.com

An attack on two Arizona State University students from China that drew attention across the globe has come to an unsatisfying close in court for the victims and their supporters, who called the attack a hate crime.

Kalie McIntyre Rutledge, 22, was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail, three years probation and ordered to pay restitution after a guilty plea in what a judge deemed an "incredibly violent" assault on two people in May.

Before the attack, Rutledge had berated the victims, saying, "Go (expletive) back to China."

More than 20 people, most of them members of Chinese or Asian community organizations, came to Rutledge's sentencing in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday to support the victims. Although many of them called it a hate crime, the attorney for the attacker said she suffers from mental illness.

Rutledge's attorney, Frances Robinson, said in the hearing that Rutledge "wants the court to know that this is not a hate crime" and that she is one-fourth Korean and experienced racial slurs as a child.

Victim Xiaolin Shi, 25, said after the hearing that her experience represents that of many immigrants.

"I think not for me but for maybe every minority immigrant," Shi said. "I feel like I’m not the only one and I won’t be the last one."

What happened on the light rail

Shi, 25, and her male friend, who asked not to be named, were talking in Mandarin while riding in an eastbound car after attending a Phoenix Mercury game May 20 when 22-year-old Rutledge began yelling at them, according to a Tempe police report.

As soon as she walked on the light rail, Rutledge asked, "You guys are from China?" according to court documents.

Rutledge berated them for 20 minutes with comments such as "I don't speak Chinese, shut the (expletive) up," and "Go (expletive) back to China," according to the report and statements in court Monday.

County Attorney Bill Montgomery called it a "racial tirade" in a news conference a week before the sentencing.

Shi and her friend ignored the comments during the train ride. As she got off the light rail at Apache Boulevard and Cedar Street in Tempe, just east of the ASU campus, Shi gave Rutledge a middle-finger gesture, according to court documents.

Rutledge followed them and punched Shi on the right side of the face, according the police report. "You are not getting away from this! You are gonna pay this, (expletive)," Rutledge said, according to court documents.

The punch knocked Shi unconscious and she fell to the ground. When her friend stepped in front of her, Rutledge punched him and his glasses fell off, the report said.

He was not seriously injured, but Shi said she was left with a severe concussion and a 2-centimeter-wide fracture in her right eye socket that will lead to either possible permanent double vision or a risky surgery that could leave her blind.

Shi is an ASU junior majoring in secondary education. The male victim graduated from ASU this month with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

Rutledge's criminal history and punishment

Rutledge has been arrested numerous times and, four days before this incident, she was released from a Maricopa County jail after serving 60 days for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest, according to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

Montgomery said, "There were multiple misdemeanors in her criminal history, all of which reflect someone with a mental-health issue."

After the attack, Rutledge was charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor assault. Rutledge pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault, which reduced it from a Class 3 felony to a Class 6, the least serious felony under Arizona law.

During the arrest, an officer found a substance appearing to be methamphetamines in one of her pockets, the police report said.

Rutledge had “a very tumultuous upbringing at best” and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, according to her lawyer, Frances Robinson.

She was sentenced to three months in county jail with credit for the 38 days she's already served, three years supervised probation; a mental-health screening and treatment for any conditions; substance-abuse testing with counseling and treatment; and restitution that is open for the period of probation.

Rutledge knows the attack was wrong and regrets it, Robinson said during the sentencing.

Shi's impassioned statement

Shi arrived to the courtroom wearing gauze over her right eye and large sunglasses to shield her eyes, still sensitive from the severe concussion. She and the male victim sat in the front row of the courtroom, waiting to address Rutledge and the judge.

"If I was not with a male friend, there was a good chance for her to beat me until death," Shi said, standing at a podium in front of the judge. "I was beaten just because of my identity, just because of discrimination for Chinese."

More than five weeks after the attack, Shi still has memory lapses, struggles to read and couldn't walk straight for weeks, she said. Her eyeball has sunken 3 millimeters, she said, and she may have to pay $7,500 for surgery on top of the $2,000 she has already paid.

Beyond physical pain, she was left with "great humiliation" in her heart, she said. After speaking, Shi cried silently in her seat. Rutledge never looked at the victims during the hearing.

"Every person, especially the minority, especially immigrants, has the same right and everybody was born equal and should be treated equal," Shi said. "And if they want to bully somebody just because of their identity, they are so wrong. And we’ll prove that they are wrong."

Is it a 'hate crime'?

"Regardless of the motivation, what we have ... is you thinking someone’s talking about you and so taking incredibly violent steps against those people," Judge Julie LaFave said during sentencing. "This sort of violence against strangers is very, very concerning."

LaFave did not allow community leaders to speak about hate crimes or discuss the impact of the attack on the Chinese community in Arizona.

"I think it is a little bit unfair," said Bernard Wu, president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Arizona. "In a hate-crime situation it destabilizes the entire community. ... A lot of people are very angry about what happened."

By Arizona law, crimes motivated by bias are not separate crimes; rather, bias can be a factor that aggravates the defendant's sentence. At three months in jail, Rutledge's sentence is far less than the possible aggravated sentence for a Class 6 felony, which is two years.

Although the sentencing feels like justice to Shi, she still feels unsafe, she said, because "I don’t know how many people there are still racist."

Upset within Chinese-language channels

Although the case attracted some national attention in the U.S., it spread far more quickly across Chinese-language press and social-media channels.

“The majority of us heard about the case just on the Chinese WeChat,” said Jin Hui Chen, a Chandler resident referring to a mobile messaging app popular in China. “This case is not just a personal case. It's a case that relates to the whole Chinese community.”

The community’s overwhelming response, Chen said, was of shock at the seemingly random nature of the attack — and also at how lenient Rutledge’s punishment appeared to be. To them, he said, the crime was clearly racially motivated and should have been charged as a hate crime.

“It will become institutional racial discrimination because those authorities didn't take any action on it,” Chen said. “It jeopardizes the whole community's welfare and safety. So we need to raise the red flags with authorities.”

Attention from a U.S. representative

The case attracted the attention of U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-New York, who reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in early June to express concern.

“Hate crimes are not acceptable anywhere, and I condemn this terrible attack,” said Meng, one of the few Asian-American members of Congress, in an email to those in Arizona concerned about the case.

“These types of bias crimes must not be tolerated anyplace in our society, and those who commit these heinous acts must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Perceived link to Yue Jiang killing

The Chinese-student community at ASU is still reeling from the death in January of 19-year-old Yue Jiang, also an ASU student from China, who was shot and killed in a Tempe fender-bender that escalated into homicide.

Montgomery met with the victims and community leaders earlier this month and addressed both cases in a recent news conference.

"I haven’t seen anything to suggest that there’s any particular concern that members of their community should feel solely because of their ethnicity," he said. "This office never has, is not in either of these two cases, and never will tolerate any type of racism or bigotry directed at a victim."

"Folks who are first generation or are new immigrants or studying or doing business here from China: There is no reason to fear being here."