Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Multiple charges dropped against teacher
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office dropped charges in two of the three cases against a schoolteacher who was arrested three times in a week in November, court records show, though prosecutors plan to re-file some of them.
Hawazin Wright, 43, still faces a misdemeanor weapons charge after police say he brought an Arabian butcher knife to a pro-Palestine rally, and prosecutors intend to re-file a drug charge of possession of meth next week.
But Wright no longer faces felony charges of aggravated assault, written threats to kill, and obscene or harassing phone communications that stemmed from two separate arrests: one in which police say he assaulted a man on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, and another, days later, in which they say he sent threatening texts to a woman he was dating.
In court filings, prosecutors wrote that the victim in the first case “failed to cooperate” and they lacked sufficient evidence in the second.
Wright, a Palm Beach Gardens resident, began working as a middle school English teacher at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Boynton Beach in 2017, according to school records. He was on administrative leave as of late November.
Police first arrested Wright on Nov. 19 in the middle of a pro-Palestine rally in downtown West Palm Beach, according to a probable cause affidavit, after he walked into Okeechobee Boulevard, impeding traffic and screaming and waving at protestors.
When West Palm Beach police officers told him to get out of the road, he ignored them, then tried to run away, and the officers tackled him. When they searched him, they discovered the 10-inch scimitar knife.
On Nov. 22, three days after the arrest, a judge granted a temporary risk protection order requiring that Wright surrender all firearms because he “poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to himself/herself or others in the near future.” The judge later extended the order until Decem
ber 2024.
Two days after the first arrest, Wright was arrested again, this time on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. A witness told police officers that he saw Wright approach a woman while wearing a three-piece suit, black rain boots, and a blue baseball cap. The woman appeared drunk and uncomfortable, and when the witness came to her defense, Wright yelled threats and slurs at him, according to the affidavit.
When a security guard stepped in, Wright threatened him with a baton, and another witness tackled him. Wright then punched the witness. Police arrested him on charges of aggravated assault and possession of meth when they discovered a baggie of the substance on him, according to a probable cause affidavit.
On Dec. 19, prosecutors dropped the assault charges against Wright, writing only, “The State declines to file charges as the victim failed to cooperate with the investigation.”
But they plan to re-file the drug charges, originally written in error as possession of ecstasy, next week.
On Nov,. 26, Wright was arrested a third time on charges of written threats to kill and obscene or harassing phone communications after a woman he had briefly dated told detectives that he texted her nonstop with threatening messages, saying she would be a “dead woman walking” if she let his calls go to voicemail.
On Dec. 28, prosecutors dropped the threats and harassment charges, writing, “The evidence provided cannot prove all legally required elements of the crime alleged and is insufficient to support a criminal prosecution.”
According to Marc Freeman, a spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, prosecutors require specific evidence to prove before a jury that the text messages actually came from Wright, including what devices sent and received the messages and anything that helps identify the sender of the message.
Prosecutors also don’t have evidence that the victim told Wright to stop contacting her.
Wright has made violent threats in the past and also struggles with mental illness, according to court records. In 2022, his wife told police officers that he threatened to kill her and her family, that he had a gun, and that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
In May 2023, Wright received a “written directive” from Christa McAuliffe to “cease and desist” from communicating with his students and “refrain from making any comments that may be interpreted as negative,” according to a written reprimand he received from the school principal about the incident.
It is unclear why he received the directive.
Wright then posted the directive on his Google Classroom along with a video of him singing Pool Shark by Sublime, according to the reprimand, which was sent in August.
Wright’s state educator license expires in June, online records show. There are no records of discipline against his license.
A status check for the case involving the knife incident is set for Jan. 11.