By John H. Tang

Superior Court Judge Julie LaFave of the Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced Kalie McIntyre Rutledge, 22, for brutally assaulting ASU Chinese graduate student victim Xiaolin Shi, 25, and her friend on a light rail train. Rutledge was arrested and charged with a felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor assault. She pleaded guilty and was charged with the least serious felony under the law.

Rutledge was sentenced to three months in jail and three years of probation.

Rutledge did not like hearing Mandarin spoken from the two and began yelling racial slurs at the two riders. When Shi and her companion left the train, Rutledge got off with them and began punching Shi in the face and yelling more racial obscenities as she fell to the ground.

Shi was injured with a severe concussion and a severe 2-centimeter wide fracture in the area surrounding her right eye. She still has memory lapses and has a hard time reading. Walking straight has been a problem and the injury to her eye is still a problem. Shi has already paid out of pocket $2,000 and possible future medical surgery costing an estimated $7,500.

Attorney Bernard Wu of Phoenix was very instrumental in helping with the legal aspects of the assault case and met with Xiaolin Shi and her colleagues about the litigation of the situation.

About 25 supporters of Shi attended the morning sentencing hearing in Superior Court in Phoenix, which included President Raymond Tang of Phoenix Chinese United Association, National Executive Rudy Yee of Phoenix Chinese American Citizens Alliance (PCACA), President Amanda Chua of the Asian American Bar Association, Phoenix Police Officer Chris Abril, Phoenix Asian Community Liaison, and the ASU Chinese support group was instrumental in making sure justice was done in the sentence of Katie Rutledge who committed, what the Chinese community feels was a racial hate crime.

Chinese Community leaders and volunteers went to court to support the victim Xiaolin Shi.