Christine Haveford
A white college student has avoided a hate crime charge, after a sickening campaign of depravity against her black roommate.
Brianna Brochu is accused of smearing bodily fluids from a used tampon on Chennel ‘Jazzy’ Rowe’s belongings.
Prosecutors did not file additional charges Monday against the 18-year-old from Harwinton.
Brochu appeared briefly at Hartford Superior Court to ask for a trial by jury. Her case was continued until January 29. She did not enter a plea.
Protestors demanded outside the courthouse that hate crime charges be filed against Brochu.
‘This is a hate crime,’ NASACP President Scot X Esdaile said on Monday.
‘We cannot sweep this under the rug. We are not going away. We will continue to come to court to make sure that justice is serve,’ reported WTNH.
But Brochu’s lawyer, Tom Stevens, maintains his client’s actions were not racially motivated.
The teen was arrested in October for misdemeanor criminal mischief and breach of the peace.
She was ultimately expelled from The University of Hartford in Connecticut over her abusive treatment of her roommate.
The freshman had been admitted to the university on an art scholarship.
Rowe and Brochu lived together in a dormitory at the University of Hartford.
Brochu’s defense lawyer previously argued that the pair simply did not get along.
He said Rowe initiated Brochu’s attacks by posting an ‘unflattering’ Snapchat video of her snoring.
As well as smearing blood from her own used tampons on Rowe’s backpack, Brochu allegedly spat in Rowe’s coconut oil.
The former college student also put ‘clam dip’ in her body lotion and her toothbrush ‘where the sun don’t shine’.
Brochu boasted about the disgusting deeds on Instagram, where she also referred to Rowe as ‘Jamaican Barbie.’
While some say this proves Brochu’s racist views towards her roommate – her lawyer argued that Rowe describes herself that way online.
Brochu admitted to the secret bulling after suspicious Rowe requested a different room.
Upon seeing the cruel Instagram post, Rowe contacted the university and also informed the police.
She says she did not know why Brochu was so unkind and that she’d started off trying to befriend her.
‘She lives in Connecticut and she would go home every weekend. I would always feed her fish,’ Rowe said in a Facebook Live.
Rowe said she believes Brochu’s efforts made her sick and that she consistently suffered from a sore throat.
‘I’m spending my own money that my parents give me for food and groceries, the health centre on campus is not free – in fact they’re expensive,’ she explained.
Brochu’s lawyer is adamant that his clients actions do not constitute a hate crime
‘I think this is sort of not the case that you all have been fanning the flame on,’ attorney Tom Stevens told The Hartford Courant outside the court in November.
‘I think when it’s all said and done, what you’re gonna see is there was nothing racial that motivated this.’
‘This was two students who were placed together, I think randomly … who didn’t like each other, like has been happening since kids went to school and became roommates.’
‘There was a tipping point that caused my clients to do whatever she did and it was when Ms. Rowe took some unflattering videotape of her and posted it,’ Stevens said.
Brochu faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail per charge.
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