ST. LOUIS — A bond hearing was held on Friday for a St. Louis woman facing charges of burglary, property damage and unlawful use of a weapon after she was captured on a Ring doorbell camera pounding on a family's door, terrorizing the family and hurling racial insults.
Brian Horneyer, a public defender representing Judy Kline said in court that Kline thought the house was her parents' home. Horneyer also said that Kline, 54, has schizophrenia, and was unmedicated and unhoused at the time of her arrest.
Horneyer asked Judge Lynne Perkins for a personal recognizance bond to help Kline create a housing plan, while a prosecutor read a victim impact statement and asked that Kline be detained.
Perkins refused Horneyer's bond request and ordered Kline detained until her next bond review hearing on March 16.
Last month, a St. Louis circuit judge put in place a protection order against Kline.
Doorbell videos posted online by Fatima Suarez received millions of views, along with sympathy for her family that’s of Mexican descent. She said the family didn’t know the woman who kept appearing at the front door.
In one video, Kline was heard saying, “You’re not American. Get off of my property.” Another time she called them “illegals” who didn’t belong in the home.
A police probable cause statement indicated Kline appeared on the doorbell video waving a hammer and using profanities before she smashed a basement window and the door of a drying machine on Jan. 5, 2022.
It took more than a year for charges to be filed against Kline because the original complaint languished before videos began receiving attention on social media.
The original complaint ended up in a drop box for non-urgent, non-violent cases, according to Allison Hawk, spokesperson for the St. Louis circuit attorney's office.
There’s a 24-hour turnaround for cases that are flagged as a public safety risk, and action was taken promptly when the videos came to the prosecutors’ attention, she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.