Man charged with hate crime after allegedly making threats during ski patrol strike

SALT LAKE CITY — A Wyoming man is being charged with a hate crime after allegedly harassing an investigator who contacted him after he reportedly made threats against ski patrollers striking in Park City in December.

According to a probable cause statement, someone involved with the strike got an angry phone call from a Wyoming man later identified as Calvin Spencer Rawe.

During that phone call, Rawe allegedly threatened to go to Vail Resorts and harm people involved with the ski patrol strike and harm transgender people.

When a police officer assigned to investigate the call reached out to Rawe, he allegedly went on a “tirade,” using homophobic slurs and anti-police language.

Rawe is accused of making four phone calls over the next few days, demanding to talk to the officer and leaving messages with racial slurs and threats.

KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said a crime is elevated by one degree when classified as a hate crime.

“A crime that’s defined by our statute becomes a hate crime when there is an element added to it that relates to a person’s gender or race or religious preference or … a protected class.”

Skordas said it’s harder to charge someone with a hate crime when it’s done over the phone or on the internet, because it’s hard to charge them with anything without an initial show of force.

Rawe is not in police custody but was issued a summons to appear in a Utah courtroom in April.