Coeur d’Alene city attorneys have declined to charge an 18-year-old suspected of yelling intimidating racial slurs at the University of Utah women’s basketball team that marred their experience playing in March Madness in Spokane.

Prosecutors said the suspect, Post Falls High School student Anthony Myers, admitted he used the N-word and referred to a sex act when yelling at the players with the desire to be “funny,” according to a written decision released Monday afternoon by Chief Deputy City Attorney Ryan Hunter.

Myers’ words, however, were deemed to be protected speech under Idaho law. Prosecutors described the language as racist and misogynistic, but determined Myers’ actions did not amount to criminal conduct .

On March 21, about 100 members of Utah’s athletics department including players, coaches, band members, cheerleaders, the dance team and school officials walked along Sherman Avenue from the Coeur d’Alene Resort, where they were staying as part of the NCAA Tournament held in Spokane. The team, along with members of the band and the athletic department, walked down the street to have dinner at Crafted Tap House + Kitchen downtown. They had a 5:30 p.m. reservation for around 90 people, according to restaurant manager Junior Mujtaba.

Utah team donor Robert Moyer reported the harassment to police two hours after the incident. In the report, he said people inside multiple lifted pickups and a “souped-up car” yelled racial slurs, including the N-word, at the nonwhite players as the drivers revved their engines. On the walk back from dinner, the group appeared to have been waiting for the team, Moyer reported, with the vehicles speeding up and slowing down hurling slurs.

The prosecutor’s document, which includes the Couer d’Alene Police Department’s three-week investigation, said there was surveillance video of lifted trucks driving by around the time the team was walking to dinner, but no evidence to support that the occupants of the trucks were revving their engines or yelling racial slurs at the team.

The investigation included about two dozen interviews and hours of surveillance video.