Roseville-store ethnic intimidation case set for trial next month
It appears an off-duty Wayne County Sheriff's deputy will go to trial to take on accusations she made an ethnic slur about Arabic people and tossing a pillow at an Arabic woman in a Roseville store.
Attorney Lillian Diallo, representing Tenia Fleming, told Macomb County Circuit Judge Joseph Toia on Monday she expects the case to go to trial after Macomb prosecutors have not offered her a deal to possibly plead guilty.
"We have not been able to reach a resolution in this matter," Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Patrick Coletta told the judge.
The trial is scheduled for Sept. 10.
"We anticipate this is going to be a one-day trial, right Mr. Coletta?" Diallo said at the end of a hearing.
"We will try to move it along as efficiently as possible," Coletta replied.
Fleming is charged with ethnic intimidation, punishable by up to two years in prison, and assault and battery, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail.
Ela Musaid, 19 at the time, testified at Fleming's preliminary examination last May in 39th District Court in Roseville that Fleming made the comment last Dec. 15 at the Marshalls store on Gratiot Avenue and 12 Mile Road.
"You f—ing filthy Arabs," Fleming said within earshot of Musaid, who was in a separate aisle and could not see Fleming, Musaid testified.
Musaid, who is of Yeminis descent and was wearing in a hijab, said she "walked away instantly" and was going to find her two sisters who accompanied her.
"As I'm walking away I get a pillow thrown at me," she said.
Musaid said in the store, "This is crazy," she testified, and Fleming voiced "a bunch of cuss" words that also included the word "crazy."
Video of the incident from Marshalls security video revealed that Fleming's husband, also a deputy, had to restrain Fleming from going toward Musaid during the incident, according to attorneys.
Musaid denied Diallo's suggestion she made racist remarks about Blacks while on the telephone moments before Fleming's comments.
Diallo argued in district court that although her client's actions may have been "bad behavior," they did not rise to criminal behavior because the pillow did not strike Musaid.
