Collyn Robinson, Senior Photographer

Six months after Lauren Noble ’11 was arrested for allegedly yelling the N-word at a Black parking lot employee on three occasions, the Yale College alum and director of the Yale-based Buckley Institute continues to build her case.

Gerno Allen, a Black man who worked at the ProPark lot at 60 Wall St., told the New Haven Police Department that Noble had twice called him the N-word to his face when she approached him to raise issues with parking or moving her car in July 2023. Allen alleged that Noble referred to him with the slur for a third time in a conversation with his supervisor two weeks later. The police affidavit notes that there were no witnesses or camera footage for Noble’s alleged interactions with Allen.

Allen decided to press charges against Noble in February, and the NHPD issued a warrant for her arrest on May 28. 

On Nov. 8, Noble’s attorney filed a discovery motion requesting a selection of records for the “preparation of her defense.” Noble’s next scheduled hearing will occur in two weeks, where she will have the option to submit a plea for the three charges of breach of peace in the second degree against her.

In a statement to the NHPD during their investigation leading to the arrest, Noble denied saying the N-word toward or in reference to Allen. According to the police affidavit, she contested Allen’s account of the events and raised concerns that the timing of the charges — months after the alleged altercations — indicated that Allen and his supervisor, Misty Doss, who cooperated with the police investigation, were “conspiring” against her. 

The News was not able to reach Noble or her attorney, Audrey Felsen, for comment on this story. 

Felsen’s request for discovery asks for a copy of “all text messages and other electronic communications made by the complainant to Misty Doss and any other ProPark employee during June 2023 and during the investigation, until present.”

Because the three events alleged in the affidavit happened in July, this request would procure communications that occurred prior to Noble’s alleged encounters with Allen. The police affidavit notes that the investigation spanned between Feb. 29 and May 21.

Felsen also requested copies of all statements and documents provided to the NHPD during their investigation of the incident, recordings of the two interviews the NHPD conducted of Allen and a recording of the interview the NHPD conducted of Doss.

Noble was originally charged with three counts of disorderly conduct. In July, those charges were dismissed and replaced with three charges of breach of peace in the second degree — more serious charges. Disorderly conduct is a Class C misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of three months in jail, while breach of peace in the second degree is a Class B misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

The change occurred after Erskine McIntosh, a Hamden-based attorney who represents Allen, wrote a letter to the prosecutor Jacqueline Fitzgerald on June 25 asking her to supplement the disorderly conduct charges with three charges of breach of peace in the second degree and three counts of harassment in the second degree — one for each of the three incidents. 

“My client entreats your office to pursue the prosecution of Ms. Noble” and expand the charges for each of the three days “that she used that odious, demeaning, cruel, abhorrent, and racist epithet toward my client,” McIntosh wrote in his letter, which he provided to the News.

Noble founded Buckley Institute in 2011, which bills itself as an organization dedicated to advancing intellectual diversity and free speech at Yale across the political spectrum. In recent years, the organization has drawn attention and controversy for inviting high-profile conservative politicians and commentators such as Ted Cruz, Mike Pompeo and Ben Shapiro.

Noble’s case has been on the New Haven Superior Court’s docket six times between May and December, according to online court records. For at least the last two scheduled hearings — Oct. 10 and Dec. 3 — her case has been assigned a later hearing because Noble did not appear before the court.

Felsen’s request for discovery asks that the disclosures are made “in sufficient time to enable counsel to effectively prepare pretrial motions, cross-examination, determine the necessity of additional defense witnesses and/or evidence and ensure that such information is still available.”

Noble’s next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17.