Previous racial slur leads to GH man

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) - A Grand Haven man faces two years in prison if he's convicted for writing a racial slur on the wall of an apartment where an African-American maintenance man was working.

Kenneth Ray Schmidt was taken into custody Thursday night after warrants were served -- ethnic intimidation (felony) and malicious destruction of property less than $200 (misdemeanor). He was arraigned Friday.

Residents at Williamsburg Court Apartments told 24 Hour News 8 they weren't surprised when Schmidt was led from the apartments in handcuffs. He has a reputation for spouting racial slurs and threats at the complex.

"They had police both ways. They walked him out," said neighbor Rachel Pelton, who saw the arrest. "You could tell he wasn't very happy but, they had him in cuffs. Went to the car and left."

On May 8, the maintenance man was painting the wall of an apartment. He left to get supplies, and when he returned, he saw someone scrawled on the wall:

"We don't want n------ working here."

Ray Davis, who lives in the apartment below Schmidt's, said, "I just think he's blowin' hot air most of the time."

Then came the night music from Schmidt's apartment started pounding the walls at 4 a.m.

"'Hey look,'" Davis said he told Schmidt, "'you're making a lot of noise, my daughter's trying to sleep. I'd appreciate it if you'd calm down.' We shook hands, everything seemed cool."

But hours later, a sticky note appeared on Davis' door. Everything was not cool.

"It said, 'N-----, if you come up to my door again, somebody's gonna get hurt,'" Davis said.

The reason Schmidt was not charged in that case provides a lesson on how Michigan's Ethnic Intimidation law is written, trying to define the fine line that separates using words, even hateful ones, from becoming a crime.

In order to charge someone with the two-year felony, one of three criteria needs to be met.

The suspect has to cause physical harm to the victim, or damage to personal property. And the prosecutor has to determine whether the suspect had a reasonable ability to carry out the threat.

The note on the door didn't meet any of the criteria. Schmidt never threatened Davis face-to-face in a physical manner. There was no physical damage to property and no reasonable proof the threat would actually be carried out.

But in the latest incident involving the maintenance man, the property destruction criteria was met. And the charge they couldn't get Schmidt on earlier helped in this case.

"He was identified as a suspect early on," said Grand Haven Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke.

Ray Davis said Schmidt deserves time behind bars. "But at the same time, I sort of feel bad for him.," he said.

"It's kind of hard to explain, because I know he's a guy with mental issues and has problems like that, it sort of like the things he was raised with or whatever, it's kind of like pushed off on him. And he's a nice guy. But," Davis said, "I don't know what it was."

Schmidt is being held on a $3,500 bond.

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In 1984, he was arrested for a traffic offense in Grand Haven, and then in 1985, he was arrested on a second offense of driving with intoxicated.

Schmidt was then arrested by the Grand Haven police in December 2000, later pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence.

And in September 2010, Grand Haven police picked him up again on a felony drug charge, and he later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor attempted possession of controlled substance less than 25 grams