CAUCASIAN TRANSIENT CONVICTED OF HATE CRIME FOR YELLING RACIAL SLURS AND SPITTING ON HISPANIC WOMAN BEFORE TRYING TO RUN HER OVER WITH BIKE

For Immediate Release Case # 11WF2364    December 15, 2011

Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486

CAUCASIAN TRANSIENT CONVICTED OF HATE CRIME FOR YELLING RACIAL SLURS AND SPITTING ON HISPANIC WOMAN BEFORE TRYING TO RUN HER OVER WITH BIKE

 

SANTA ANA – A transient Caucasian man was convicted today of hate crime battery for yelling racial slurs at a Hispanic woman, spitting on her, and trying to run her over with his bicycle.  Jonathan Michael Schmidt, 31, transient, pleaded guilty to a court offer to three misdemeanor counts of hate crime battery. Schmidt has a prior prison conviction for false imprisonment in 2003. He was sentenced to three years of formal probation and 180 days in Orange County jail. The People objected to the sentence, advocating to keep the counts as felonies for a maximum sentence of five years and four months in state prison on the basis of the severity of the crime and the defendant’s criminal history.

 

At approximately 1:40 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2011, 36-year-old Jane Doe and her sister were stopped at a stop sign in Huntington Beach near Main Street, in a car driven by Jane Doe on their way to a chocolate shop. The victim and her sister are Hispanic.

 

Schmidt was riding on his bicycle and approached the open driver’s side window of the victim’s stopped vehicle. The defendant and the victim do not know each other. Schmidt yelled racial slurs and profanity at the victim including, “F****** Mexican, go back to Mexico.” Without provocation, he spit in Jane Doe’s face through the open window.

 

Jane Doe drove away and reached her destination a short distance later. She parked her car and the victim and her sister got out. While outside of the vehicle, Schmidt again rode up to Jane Doe and yelled more racial slurs and profanity before spitting on the victim’s back.

 

Schmidt rode away and returned moments later. He rode his bicycle directly at Jane Doe, forcing her to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

 

The Huntington Beach Police Department, who investigated this case, responded and arrested Schmidt at the scene.

 

Senior Deputy District Attorney John Christl of the Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted this case.

  

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