The 67-year-old Midvale woman captured on video yelling racial slurs and profanities outside a neighboring family’s home was booked into Salt Lake County jail early Wednesday on existing warrants.
Jail records indicate the woman was booked at around 1:45 a.m. She was later released at about noon on her own recognizance, a jail official said, meaning she is not believed to be a flight risk and wasn’t required to post bail.
The warrants the woman was arrested on stem from two separate class B misdemeanor charges — assault and destruction of property. Both cases relate to reported confrontations with neighbors, with the June assault allegation stemming from the Midvale mother who first posted the footage documenting examples of the woman’s “vulgar and harassing” behavior to Instagram at least five days ago.
The mother wrote in a caption that she felt police have not adequately helped her family. “I share this unfortunate situation publicly with hopes of change in behavior,” she wrote.
[Read more: Midvale family shares videos of neighbor’s racist harassment, says police haven’t helped]
Officers with the Unified Police Department, which has jurisdiction over Midvale, had been receiving calls about the neighbor for months, but they had not previously arrested her because they could not make contact with her, police spokesperson Melody Cutler said Tuesday.
Cutler added that even if the woman was taken into custody, she likely wouldn’t be in jail long, given the low-level charges levied against her. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify defendants charged with misdemeanors.
On Wednesday, Cutler said officers were able to arrest the woman because this time, she answered the door.
Midvale Mayor Marcus Stevenson announced her arrest in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Wednesday.
“I’m hopeful that this is a positive step for the healing of the targeted family, the affected neighborhood, [the woman], and our entire community,” he wrote.
The videos the Midvale mother posted on Instagram included clips of the neighbor, a white woman, driving by the family’s home in a car or walking by with her dog, shouting racial profanities toward the home including the N-word. Most clips were filmed outside with a surveillance camera, but one appears to have been filmed on a cellphone.
[Content warning: The videos shared online contain racial slurs. See the woman’s Instagram post here.]
The footage and the mother’s plea for help spread rapidly online this week, prompting action from city officials and accusations of police bias, which Cutler denied. Popular TikTok user @TizzyEnt also shared the mother’s content.
Some social media posts highlighting the mother’s story have indicated that the neighbor once worked as a prosecutor, but Cutler said police have found no evidence that she was or that she ever practiced law in Utah. A Utah State Bar directory search shows one licensed attorney who shares the name of the neighbor, but the trial lawyer admitted to practice law in 2010 and the neighbor are two different people.
The neighbor has racially harassed the family at their home “hundreds” of times since about 2020, Tyler Ayres, the family’s attorney, said. The family first moved into the neighborhood off Union Park Avenue, just south of the Interstate 215 Belt Route, about four years ago.
The harassment seemed to slow during the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to Ayres, the family says it ramped up beginning in May, when it started happening “daily,” the mother wrote on Instagram.
The family had reported the situation to Unified police before, which has jurisdiction over Midvale, but the mother said police contended that the neighbor’s speech is protected. The situation has left the family living in fear, Ayres said.
“We have dozens of case numbers, multiple trespassing and harassment orders and have filed for restraining and protective orders,” the mother wrote on Instagram. “We have been in contact with attorneys and the mental health crisis unit. We have contacted our HOA.”
Midvale Justice Court prosecutors did not initially forward the mother’s allegations to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office to be considered for hate crime charges, District Attorney Sim Gill said Tuesday. His office has reached out to local law enforcement and will review their investigation.
“We want to be able to reserve our judgment when those materials are sent to us, so we can take a look at them. I don’t want to prejudge it,” Gill said, “but I can certainly say that, like everybody else who saw [the videos], it certainly gives me concern.”
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