(ST. LOUIS) — A St. Louis, Missouri woman will appear in court Wednesday after a viral video led the police department to bring charges against her for allegedly breaking into a Latino family’s home.
St. Louis resident Judy Kline, 54, has a hearing set and has been criminally charged with burglary, property damage and unlawful use of a weapon — all felonies.
Fatima Suarez said her family’s St. Louis home was repeatedly visited by a woman who allegedly insulted her family, stole their mail and damaged their property for more than a year.
Video footage captured by the family’s Ring doorbell camera in on Jan. 5, 2022, allegedly shows a woman yelling into the camera, going through their mail and hurling racist remarks at them.
“You’re not American, get off of my property,” Kline can be heard saying. In another video, Kline said, “Did you have something to do with 9/11?”
A probable cause statement said that Kline used a “hammer to break in through the basement door window by breaking the glass on the door.” It also said that Kline “smashed a glass door on a drying machine.”
Suarez, whose family is of Mexican descent, posted the footage to TikTok, where it received millions of views.
The St. Louis Police Department told ABC News that Kline is currently not in police custody. A statement from a spokesperson said that Kline has not been in custody “since a warrant was issued for her arrest by the Circuit Attorney’s Office on 2/8/2023. The warrants issued by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office stem from an arrest in January of 2022. I have no additional information to provide at this time.”
Kline has no previous criminal charges against her, according to court records.
ABC News could not reach Kline for comment.
“I’ll do anything to protect [my parents] and I don’t want them to ever feel uncomfortable in their own home,” Suarez told ABC News.
Last week, the city’s Circuit Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it “elevated the warrant application related to this case.” The statement also said that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department determines “the public safety threat to evaluate whether the case should be reviewed within 24 hours of the application for an arrest warrant.”
The hearing is classified as an “Adult Abuse Hearing,” and is not for the criminal charges against Kline, but for an ex-parte order of protection. The order would prevent Kline from stalking, abusing or molesting the Suarez family, from communicating with the family, and from entering their property.
If granted, an order of protection would prevent Kline from being within 300 feet, or one football field, of the Suarez’s home, job, car or “any place they may be found.”
Suarez said that while she hopes the judge grants the order of protection, she is not hopeful that it will do anything to protect her parents and 4-year-old sister. Suarez said that Kline may be mentally ill, but Kline knows she is harassing the Suarez family.
“She’s still gonna go by the house,” Suarez said.
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