Utah man charged with hate crimes spit on Muslim woman, her son, prosecutors say

A Utah man has been charged with hate crimes after prosecutors say he spit on a Muslim mother and her 7-year-old son while telling them to “go back to your country.”

The confrontation occurred Oct. 27 at the Utah Transit Authority’s Millcreek Station, 210 W. 3300 South, according to charging documents filed Friday in 3rd District Court.

Transit authority police were called to the station on a report that a man, later identified as 60-year-old Robert Wolcott, was intoxicated and acting disorderly while trying to board a bus, charges state.

As police spoke with Wolcott, the “visibly upset” mother approached an officer and said Wolcott had spit at her and her child as they exited a train. She said he told them to “go back to your country” and said “f--- you.” The woman was wearing “traditional Muslim clothing,” prosecutors wrote.

Officers arrested Wolcott that day, but he was released a day later on his own recognizance. He was also banned from all UTA modes of transport for 30 days.

Wolcott has since been charged with two counts of propelling a bodily substance, which is normally a class B misdemeanor offense. However, since prosecutors say Wolcott targeted his victims because he believed they were not from the U.S., they used the victim-targeting penalty to upgrade those charges to class A misdemeanors.

Wolcott is also facing a single count of intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, and a disorderly conduct infraction.

As the Israel-Hamas war escalates, U.S. officials have reported an increase in threats and hate crimes against Arab, Jewish and Muslim communities, The Washington Post reported late last month.

“Hate, in any form, has no place in Salt Lake County. These alleged crimes not only do harm to the victims but also to our entire community,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement. “Hate speech is protected under our constitution. Hateful action to the criminal harm of others is not and will be prosecuted by this office.”

Gill had long been an advocate for passing a stronger hate crimes law in Utah, and was instrumental to such a bill passing in 2019.

Proponents of that bill said the state’s older law, which is still on the books, wasn’t workable because it does not enumerate protected groups, such as ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, national origin, race, religion or sexual orientation, and only applied to misdemeanor assaults.

The more recent law names such groups and can be applied to felony offenses, as well.