The woman appealed denial to include her in first-offender program.
CAMDEN -- A woman who was convicted of taunting a 12-year-old black youth in Haddon Heights nearly four years ago has lost her court challenge for not being admitted into a first-time offender program after the incident.
A two-judge Superior Court appeals panel ruled last week that Bridgette N. Archut was properly denied access to the pretrial diversion program. The court did rule to modify Archut's probation sentence to two years instead of three to serve the sentence concurrently.
The court decision said Archut, 22, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was properly excluded from the program citing offenders who "deliberately committed with violence or threat of violence against another person."
Archut, of Paulsboro, was with four other white people in a car when they started yelling racial epithets at the youth, who was riding his bike with his 17-year-old brother in a Haddon Heights park in 2013. Archut was convicted of bias intimidation for throwing a capped cup of water at the youth that "exploded," causing some of the ice to hit his foot.
A 13-year-old sitting near Archut "yelled out a racial slur, referring to a little n-," the court record said. The driver of the car then turned around just before Archut threw the water out of the window. The youth's brother called police and Archut and her crew were arrested. It was not immediately reported if anyone else in the car was charged or convicted.
The youth, only identified at "C.B." in the court record testified: "I feel like they're trying to degrade me and I felt bad about myself and I thought they tried to take my right away as like being a person."
The panel also agreed with the original trial judge's decision to "to send a strong message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated in the future."
Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.