BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Idaho’s top prosecuting attorney said civil rights and hate crime enforcement continue to be some of his top priorities after a year in the role.
U.S. Attorney for Idaho Josh Hurwit recently completed his first year in the position; he was nominated by President Joe Biden in April 2022 and confirmed by the Senate that June.
Shortly after he was sworn in, Hurwit told the Idaho Press that civil rights were top-of-mind for him in Idaho as well as for the Department of Justice. Almost exactly one year later, he announced that the office would be hiring a new civil rights attorney, representing the first time the office would have someone working full time on the issue.
Applications are open for the new position, which Hurwit said he hopes to fill by the fall.
Hurwit said this new position “will help us achieve what we want to achieve in terms of all types of civil rights enforcement,” which can include hate crimes, discrimination and domestic violent extremism.
“I feel like we have a good team and this resource to have one more attorney to really focus on that and also do the outreach to the places where I can’t be everywhere at once, is going to be really good, so I’m really proud of that,” he said.
Hurwit also highlighted the indictment and recent plea deal of Matthew Lehigh for charges related to a spate of homophobic assaults and attempted assaults as well as the damage of an LGBTQ flag in Boise's North End neighborhood.
Lehigh pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges associated with incidents where he yelled homophobic slurs while trying to hit multiple people with his car, according to court documents.
Lehigh was charged with a federal hate crime after he set fire to an LGTBQ pride flag and broke the glass at The Community Center, which provides services to people in the LGTBQ+ community, in early October 2022. A couple days later, he called someone in a Whole Foods a derogatory slur for a gay person and then punched that person in the head and later called a transgender library employee a homophobic slur, striking her, and tried to run over another library employee who attempted to defend her.
Lehigh also admitted to driving his car at two women he assumed were lesbian while shouting threats and slurs, the documents state. As part of the plea agreement, Lehigh admitted all of these alleged incidents were true.
Hurwit also highlighted the United Against Hate events he has hosted in partnerships with other organizations in the state; events have been held in North Idaho, Caldwell and Boise.
United Against Hate is a nationwide initiative launched by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Hurwit said he wants to keep hosting them to improve education about hate crimes but also to encourage reporting it.
He said it’s important for the office to be “nimble” as it juggles the many types of litigation involved in federal prosecution, which can include anything from counterfeit cases to hate crimes to drug busts.
In addition to the new civil rights attorney position, Hurwit also said his office will hire a new attorney to handle civil litigation in the office’s COVID-19 fraud task force, which prosecutes those who abused government pandemic-relief funds.
Hurwit’s office, which has more than 30 attorneys on staff, covers all of Idaho in a number of issues such as consumer protection, drug trafficking, firearms, financial crimes and immigration.
Before being sworn into his current position, Hurwit had served as an assistant United States attorney in Idaho since 2012, under former U.S. attorneys Wendy Olson and Bart Davis.
Davis, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, stepped down in 2021 after Biden was elected, as is customary after a partisan change in administration.
Hurwit said as he looks ahead, his the office is “always looking to improve.”
“I’m always looking to enhance our abilities," he said, "but I really think we’re doing great work for Idaho."
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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