Woman accused of verbally abusing South City family to serve five years probation

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (First Alert 4) – The woman who harassed a South City family with racial slurs and broke into their home with a hammer has been sentenced to five years probation for federal crimes.

First Alert 4 has learned that the St. Louis District Attorney's Office will not file further charges against Judy Kline.

The family told First Alert 4 that this was disturbing.

“I’ll be back, just wait,” Judy Kline whispered into the family’s Ring door camera in January 2022.

Kline, 55, was arrested by St. Louis police after smashing the door of a Princeton Heights home with a hammer in January 2022.

Fatima Suarez told First Alert 4 her father and little sister were at home at the time. She described the experience as traumatic and more than two years later, the whole family lives with her.

“It got to the point where I had to delete the Ring app from my phone so I wouldn't wake up to see if it was there,” Suarez said Thursday via Zoom.

In 2022, police applied for arrest warrants from the St. Louis District Attorney's Office under Kim Gardner. But prosecutors left the case untouched for over a year. And it wasn't until First Alert 4 began asking why no charges had been filed that Gardner filed charges.

In the summer of 2023, the family was charged with civil rights violations for repeatedly harassing the Latino family, accusing them of being illegal immigrants and claiming they had no right to live there.

Now, in August 2024, Kline pleaded guilty.

“In my opinion, nothing is hard enough for her,” Suarez said. “In my opinion, they were lucky that no one was hurt, but what if my father or my sister had been hurt? Because the first person she saw was my little sister. If my father hadn't been there in time, she might have done something to my sister.”

A federal judge accepted Kline's agreement on Thursday.

She will serve the maximum sentence of five years probation.

During this time, she must remain in a nursing home, where she currently lives and is undergoing psychiatric treatment. She is also forbidden from contacting the victims or approaching their home in the southern part of the city.

As Fatima sits with her seven-month-old son during the interview with First Alert 4, the thought of Kline returning to her family home is her greatest fear.

“While I go to work, he is with his grandmother,” Suarez explained. “Now it's different, now I'm more nervous. I just hope she never comes back.”

She said neither the federal verdict nor the district attorney's dismissal of charges would bring closure to the family.

All rights reserved.