UNC student charged with falsely reporting hate crime
A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student has been cited for falsely claiming that he was assaulted in a hate crime, university police said Wednesday.
Posted — UpdatedQuinn Matney, 19, of Asheville, was cited last Friday with misdemeanor filing a false police report. He was released and scheduled to appear in court in Hillsborough on May 16.
Matney, a freshman, told authorities that on April 5, a strange man walked up to him near a foot bridge on campus, called him a derogatory name, told him "here is a taste of hell," and held a heated object to his skin for several seconds, burning him.
His father, David, said Matney was too embarrassed to say that the wound was self-inflicted, so he made up a story to tell his friends, who urged him to report a hate crime.
Matney admitted that the story was untrue during a meeting with UNC's public safety department last week, his father said. He returned to Asheville and has sought counseling.
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