Hate crime charge for California woman in Starbucks attack

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco Bay Area prosecutors have charged a 33-year-old woman with a hate crime after she hurled racist epithets at a Starbucks manager and struck a customer several times.

The woman was arraigned in Santa Clara County Thursday and faces jail time if convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime, the office of District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a press release. She was appointed a public defender and did not enter a plea, the DA’s office said Friday.

Prosecutors say the woman entered a Starbucks coffee shop in Mountain View and began yelling at the manager that he “should go back to your country” and that she would have him “deported back to Mexico.” The manager is of Indian descent, according to the press release.

The woman then heard a Hispanic customer speaking with an accent and told her that she too should return to her country, according to the release. The victim tried to stop the defendant from recording her with her phone, prompting the woman to strike the victim seven to 10 times, inflicting scratches, the release stated.