Hate crime charge to be dropped after plea deal reached in attack at Seahawks game

SEATTLE — King County prosecutors tell KIRO 7 a Tacoma man charged with malicious harassment, the legal term for a hate crime in Washington state, will have that charge dismissed at sentencing after pleading guilty Wednesday to third-degree assault for a physical and verbal attack on a lesbian couple at a 2018 Seahawks game at CenturyLink Field against the Arizona Cardinals.

>>Man charged with hate crime, assault after allegedly attacking lesbian couple at Seahawks game

Jay Dee Harp III was initially charged with second-degree assault and malicious harassment after prosecutors said he spent much of the December 2018 football game making “crude, vulgar comments to the victim lesbian couple sitting nearby” that referenced sexual acts. A video posted to YouTube showed the assault.

At one point, Harp allegedly grabbed one of the women, unzipped her jacket and grabbed her breast and “was not letting go,” charging papers say. He threw his beer in her face when she tried to push him off, according to charging papers, which state that the woman’s wife intervened and said “he could not put hands on my wife.”

That’s when fans in the crowd stepped in to help by grabbing Harp, who got loose and punched one of the women in the face, according to prosecutors. A close friend of the couple told KIRO 7 last year that the woman who was punched underwent nose surgery and was left with a chipped tooth.

Prosecutors say Harp will be sentenced next month. His attorney, reached by phone Wednesday, declined to comment until after the sentencing.

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