Report: Black woman’s accusation against white woman for threatening protesters was false.

False Accusations and Unjust Punishment: The Story of Morgan Bettinger

Amidst the chaos of COVID lockdowns and Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, a white student at the University of Virginia was accused of threatening black protesters and was punished. But the account given by the black protester who accused the student wasn’t backed up by evidence or witnesses, according to a report from Reason magazine.

The Incident

On the evening of July 17, 2020, Zyahna Bryant, one of the Black Women Matter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, claimed on social media that a white woman in a vehicle approached protesters and told them they would make “good speed bumps.”

To support her claims, Bryant posted several videos showing an SUV reversing down a street as she and other protesters followed it. Bryant can be heard saying “It’s a Karen, it’s a Karen.” The videos don’t show the vehicle’s driver saying anything about speed bumps, Reason reported.

In a Medium post shortly after the incident, the group behind the protest, Charlottesville Beyond Policing, claimed that the woman “drove around the public works truck blocking the street that demonstrators were convened on, and felt compelled to say, not just once, but twice, that protesters would ‘make good speed bumps.’”

Because the vehicle’s license plate was featured in Bryant’s videos, people quickly identified the driver as Morgan Bettinger, a senior at UVA.

The Trial

Bryant started a campaign to get mass complaints sent to UVA administrators in an effort to get Bettinger expelled, according to Reason. Bryant also filed her own complaint with the University Judiciary Committee (UJC), a student-run disciplinary system that took up the case. The university also said it would investigate the matter.

Bettinger’s version of events is much different than Bryant’s. Bettinger told Reason that she was returning home from work when she saw a dump truck partially blocking the road ahead. She kept driving toward it before realizing that the road was completely blocked. She claimed she had no room to turn around, so she parked her car and stepped out to see why the road was blocked.

At her trial before the UJC, Bettinger faced Bryant for the first time. After each woman told her story, the UJC found Bettinger guilty, even though it seemed to accept that her version of events was the truth. Reason Magazine reported it could not find any rationale behind the panel’s decision, except for a paragraph that was read to Bettinger after she was found guilty.

Bettinger was sentenced on September 28, 2020, to 50 hours of community service at a social justice organization, three meetings with a professor to teach her about “police community relations,” an apology letter to Bryant, and she was expelled in abeyance, meaning she would be expelled if she committed a second offense similar to this one.

The Aftermath

Bettinger graduated but had a mark on her record preventing her from moving on with her life, as well as the notoriety that came from the assault on her reputation.

A year later, UVA’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR) completed its own investigation based on a separate complaint filed by Bryant, which claimed Bettinger harassed her based on her race.

The EOCR investigation, completed in June 2021, found that Bettinger didn’t legally harass Bryant and provided more detail on Bryant’s original complaint, according to Reason.

Since the ordeal, Bryant has continued to participate as a social justice activist, while Bettinger reportedly lives in a state of limbo, unable to move forward.

“This whole situation has had a huge impact on my life,” Bettinger told Reason. “The university has never had to answer for what their actions have done.”

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