RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Native Americans and activists packed into a theater doubling as a courtroom on Wednesday in part to protest what they view as lenient treatment of a South Dakota man accused of harassing American Indian children with racial slurs and spilling beer on them at a hockey game.

Protesters have criticized the state court's handling of the case against 41-year-old Trace O'Connell and have said it highlights racial issues that persist in the city and in South Dakota's justice system. O'Connell has pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct charge in Rapid City, the second-largest metropolitan area in South Dakota after Sioux Falls. The charge stems from the incident at a Rapid City Rush game in January.

Authorities say in a court complaint that O'Connell sprayed beer and used racially-charged language near a group of minors and adults at the ice arena in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City. The group was from American Horse School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

More than 100 Native Americans and others gathered for the trial at Rapid City High School. The judge had it moved to a theater in the Performing Arts Center of Rapid City to accommodate an expected large turnout. A group of protesters stood outside of the high school shortly before the trial began as more than 20 people marched up the street waving flags and chanting, "Stop the hate!" Native Americans are the largest minority group in South Dakota at nine percent of the population.