Genevienne Marlene Rancuret, 55, of Montana, was taken into custody over the weekend on charges that she rammed her vehicle into a rally in the Treasure State organized by a Black Hebrew organization located in New York.
For the alleged attack on Israel United in Christ members in Billings over the weekend, Rancuret was charged in state district court and ordered jailed on $250,000 bail. Standing before a grocery shop on a major road, the group held placards and listened to the Bible read aloud. According to reports, Rancuret threatened to use her vehicle to attack the group after telling a convenience store clerk that she thought they were discriminatory toward white people. According to court records, she told authorities that the gang had yelled a slur at her and that she had run over them on purpose out of fear for her safety.
Damage to the group’s equipment surpassed $1,500, and a 45-year-old man was brought to the hospital for a leg injury after being hit. Earlier this week, a spokesman for Israel United in Christ said that the group’s members were unprovokedly assaulted while peacefully speaking.
An “extreme and antisemitic faction of Black Hebrew Israelites” is how the Southern Poverty Law Center characterized the New York-based religious organization. The Anti-Defamation League reports that adherents of this religion hold the view that Native Americans, Black people, and Hispanics are the actual heirs to the Israelites’ ancestral homelands and that Judaism is an impostor.
Police said that Rancuret had been drinking and driving, in addition to nine charges of aggravated assault, criminal endangerment, criminal mischief, and DUI. Public defender Seth Haack asked District Court Standing Master Bradley Kneeland to let Rancuret go free on her recognizance so she could see her mother, who is 93 years old, but the judge denied the motion.
She was probationed and granted a deferred sentence of seven years.
