ST. LOUIS — St. Louis prosecutors charged a south St. Louis woman with three felonies after she was caught on camera repeatedly harassing a family because of their Mexican descent.
Signs along Hampton Avenue in the south St. Louis neighborhood warn about children playing, but for one local family, there is a much bigger issue.
"Illegals live in here,” a woman named Judy Kline can be heard screaming at a Ring doorbell camera. “Get out! You're a bunch of illegals that don't belong on American property. Get out!"
"We don't know her from anywhere,” Fatima Suarez, whose family was the target of Kline’s attacks, said. “She just randomly started coming to the house."
Fatima Suarez said her family was forced to call the police on the woman in the video, Kline, multiple times over the past 12 months.
"You're not American,” Kline can be heard screaming. “Get off my property! Did you have something to do with 9/11?"
"One time, we approached her, and she said she's going to kill my family,” Suarez said.
Suarez said her family caught Kline inside their house, beating their door in with a hammer, and even stealing their mail.
"I'm going to get away with it because I'm an American and it's my property,” Kline in footage captured by the Suarez family, said.
"She got close to me like she was going to hurt me,” Suarez said. “That's when my husband punched her in the face."
According to Capt. Charles Wells with St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, officers responded to four incidents involving Kline at the home, and even arrested her after this incident in January of 2022.
"I'm coming back you wait and see,” Kline said speaking to the doorbell.
"The circuit attorney's office is the prosecuting authority,” said Wells. “It is ultimately their purview as to whether or not to issue a case and make a determination of whether or not there is sufficient evidence to move forward with a crime."
The situation changed Wednesday when Prosecuting Attorney Kim Gardner's office charged Kline with three felonies including burglary, property damage, and unlawful use of a weapon.
"I don't want her to be in jail, but she needs help,” Suarez said. "If she's threatening my family, she can do it to other families as well."
Though Kline has been charged, at this time she is not in police custody.
A spokesperson for Gardner's office told 5 On Your Side's Holden Kurwicki that the doorbell video of Kline, which has since gone viral online, was not available to prosecutors until recently.
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