DEARBORN — In an interview with The Arab American News, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy discussed her decision to not move forward with charges in the Dearborn Kroger incident that occurred on February 12.

Last week, Worthy’s office announced that no charges would be made against two White men who allegedly attacked 61-year-old Samih Saleh, who was grocery shopping with his two children, due to insufficient evidence surrounding the case. 

“This is one of those rare cases where we just don’t know what happened at all,” Worthy said. “We couldn’t get to the truth of everything. Prosecutors and police may have their views on what happened, but you have to have enough evidence under the law.  The legal standard is very high. We have to use admissible evidence and it didn’t meet the standard that we had.” 

According to witness accounts, an altercation with Saleh and the two White men occurred in the ice cream aisle of the Dearborn Kroger located on Michigan Ave. and Greenfield Rd. 

Kathy McMillan Bazzi, who was shopping at the Kroger when the incident occurred, became a primary witness in the case. In the hours following the altercation, Bazzi went on social media to divulge details about what she had witnessed.

According to Bazzi’s social media remarks, Saleh was attacked and called names such as “ISIS” and “terrorist.” His daughter was allegedly told to “take the rag off her head.”

Saleh spoke with The Arab American News this week, expressing utter disappointment in Bazzi’s witness account when she was called in by the prosecutor’s office. He claimed that her statements came up short, causing the prosecutor’s office to have reasonable doubts.

“She saw and heard exactly what happened,” Saleh said. “She went to the press and said all of that. But when she went downtown, she changed her mind. She said that she was too far and she thought she saw that.”

The Arab American News contacted Bazzi via Facebook and she agreed to conduct an interview to clarify her stance. However, she ended up not following through with her comments.

In a written message, Bazzi did claim that she was briefly called into the prosecutor’s office, but her comments were not documented or recorded.

“I haven’t testified to anything as of yet,” Bazzi told The Arab American News. “I had an informal talk with a prosecutor. Nothing was recorded or written down. And I totally sympathized with the gentleman who was attacked.”

According to Worthy, neither the witness testimony or surveillance footage were able to lead her office to make a determination on the case.

“We looked at all the surveillance video that they had and it didn’t capture the event,” Worthy noted.  “We not only had to consider the charges and requests being made by the victims. We had to look at everything in a case and we had to go by all the evidence we had.”

Worthy added that the two White men had filed a cross-complaint against Saleh and that the determination to not move forward has exonerated both parties. 

Worthy pointed out that the level of an ethnic intimidation charge in Michigan needs to meet certain standards, calling it a “very poorly written law.”

She added that even if the two White males had made racially charged comments to Saleh, it would not meet the standards of a hate crime. The prosecutor’s office instead focused on whether any assault charges could come out of the case. 

“Calling someone a name during an attack does not mean it’s ethnic intimidation,” Worthy said. “It never rose to the level of being a hate crime. We were looking at assault charges. There were complaints against the Muslim man too and I hope that doesn’t get lost. There was allegations to suggest that he was also guilty of felonies. Not only did we find that we couldn’t charge his alleged attackers, but we exonerated him because he didn’t do anything wrong under the law.”

Saleh said that the aftermath of the incident has taken a toll on his family. He said his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son are seeking therapy weekly and suggested that he’s still in physical pain following the altercation. 

“My children now know what prejudice is,” Saleh said. “They understand why those guys hit me. I feel that they are too young to be exposed to these things and now they have to grow up in fear.”

He believes the County’s determination to not move forward with charges will further prompt hate crimes against local Muslims and Arab Americans. “I feel so poisoned,” Saleh said. “This one is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. These people are going to turn around and do it to someone else. When the prosecutor asked me what I wanted out of this, I said I wanted to see these guys get charged so they couldn’t go and do it to someone else.”

Worthy refuted Saleh’s stance, claiming the prosecutor’s office does not take these types of cases lightly. She added that she has zero tolerance for hate crimes and would not hesitate to charge individuals in the future if one were to occur.

“If there ever is ethnic intimidation or assault in your community, we would act appropriately,” she said. “We took the investigation very seriously and took the time to ensure there was no other conclusion we could come to. We had several cases in recent history where we did charge that. This decision should not show anyone that we aren’t serious. The message here is simply that we didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute under the law.”

Attorney Mohammed Abdrabboh, representing Saleh, said he has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in hopes of obtaining more details about the investigation.