Tirade over dog poop spurs ethnic intimidation charge

GRAND RAPIDS – A woman upset about dog droppings in her Northwest Side neighborhood has been charged with ethnic intimidation for hurling racial insults at neighbors while waving a pellet gun.

Judy Lorraine Syrek, 56, is charged with felonious assault and ethnic intimidation for the July 27 incident on Jackson Street west of Lane Avenue NW.

Grand Rapids police charged her with assault for holding a pellet gun while letting loose with a stream of racial epithets against three people in her neighborhood near Lincoln Park. The confrontation began when Syrek confronted the trio about dog droppings in their yard; Syrek lives in the same block.

"She was upset over the neighbor's dog and feces in their yard,'' Grand Rapids Police Sgt. Terry Dixon said. "Apparently those neighbors were not addressing that particular problem. She got upset and felt the need to bring out a long gun and then point it at several subjects.''

Although Syrek did not fire the weapon, presenting the gun in a menacing manner justified the felonious assault charge, which is punishable by up to four years in prison. Prosecutors charged her with ethnic intimidation for peppering her comments with the N-word, police said.

Syrek was arraigned in Grand Rapids District Court last week on the two charges. She'll be back in court Friday for a probable cause hearing. Syrek is also charged with being a habitual felony offender for a 2004 conviction of attempted welfare fraud over $500. She was fined $70 for a front yard parking violation in 2009.

The longtime Northwest Side resident is free after posting a $5,000 bond with the condition she not venture near her neighbor's home.

Syrek is the second person charged in Kent County this year under Michigan's 1989 ethnic intimidation law, which makes it a crime to maliciously intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, gender or national origin.

In July, the manager of a Gaines Township mobile home park was charged with assault and ethnic intimidation for allegedly peppered the air with the N-word during a June 8 scuffle with a bi-racial teenager.

Terry Ray Brooks Jr., 46, was ordered to stand trial on the charges; a trial date has not been set.