A white Toledo woman was hit with charges including ethnic intimidation Monday after allegedly spray-painting "Hail Trump," "N--- keep out," and a swastika across the front of her black neighbor's home over the weekend. Patricia Edelen, 47, pleaded not guilty; she was ordered not to have any contact with the victim, who is in the process of selling the house. The incident went viral after Monica Davis, the victim's realtor, posted a video on social media showing the vandalism, which took place less than three miles away from the location where, mere hours later, the Ohio city's annual African American Parade would be kicking off. Davis called for the video to go viral, and it did: Soon, community members were at the house, power washing and scrubbing away the spray-painted words, the Toledo Blade reports.
"This morning we had a great time celebrating our community’s diversity at the African American Festival parade. At the same time, a family in our community experienced a hate crime," Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz posted on Facebook on Saturday. But since the alleged crime does not meet the federal standards for a hate crime, the ethnic intimidation charge was filed, which increases the severity of the other misdemeanor charges Edelen is facing—criminal mischief, criminal damaging, and obstructing official business. Police tell the Washington Post the charge is rarely used. A neighbor caught Edelen on video allegedly vandalizing the home, and police used the recording to identify her, ABC 13 reports. They had to force their way into her house to arrest her Saturday night after she refused to allow them in. "I have never been more dismayed and [then] more proud of Toledo than today," a resident posted Saturday along with pictures of the clean-up. (More racial slurs stories.)
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