A white Michigan couple charged and arrested for the alleged crime of pointing a gun at a black family who’d harassed, demeaned, and threatened them outside a Chipotle near Detroit, Michigan has won their case.
On Monday, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan dismissed Jillian Wuestenberg and Eric Wuestenberg’s case with prejudice after the black family didn’t appear in court for the couple’s first day of trial, according to the Detroit News.
The Wuestenbergs were relieved, Jillian’s attorney, Terry Johnson, said.
“After almost three years of political charges and allegations against them, they’re feeling relieved and somewhat vindicated. Unfortunately, they will not get their full life back. But this is a step in the right direction,” according to Johnson.
Eric’s attorney, Dean Greenblatt, admitted though that he would have liked to see the case go to trial so that the couple could have been fully vindicated.
He added that he believes the black family didn’t show up because they would have been “outed as the instigators in an attempted assault against the Wuestenbergs.”
“It was quite clear that they were interested in creating a confrontation and videotaping it,” he said.
The case stemmed from an incident that occurred in the summer of 2020 and quickly went viral thanks to a video recorded by the black family.
Watch, but ignore the Twitter user’s comments (*Graphic content):
New video/alternate angle:
A manic #Karen named Jillian Wuestenberg held an unarmed Black mom & her daughters at gunpoint in a Chipotle parking lot outside Detroit on Weds following a heated argument. She has since been arrested & charged with felonious assault. pic.twitter.com/02uSLjuWcM
— MK-ULTRA (@mkultranews) July 2, 2020
The video showed a black woman later identified as Takelia Hill and her 15-year-old daughter harassing a pregnant white woman for allegedly bumping into the teen.
The pregnant white woman was Jillian.
The video began with Jillian trying to speak calmly and explain her side of the story, only to have Hill and her daughter call her “ignorant” and a “dumba– b—h.”
Wuestenberg eventually bypassed them, walked over to her car and took a seat in the passenger side as Eric held open the door.
That was when Hill threatened Eric, telling him, “You say something, I’ll beat your white a– too!”
“Who the f–k do you think you guys are?” Eric replied, without resorting to any racial attacks.
This triggered Hill’s daughter into calling the Wuestenbergs both “racist” and “ignorant,” despite her mother having just made a racial remark.
This prompted Wuestenberg to exclaim from her car, “You cannot just walk around calling white people racist!”
“I care about you, and I’m sorry if you’ve had an incident that has made someone make you feel like that,” she congenially added.
She then rolled up her window as her husband entered their car, and the two prepared to take off.
That’s when Hill walked behind the couple’s car, falsely accused the couple of trying to hit her with their car, and then began bashing their car with her fist.
This behavior evidently freaked Wuestenberg out so much that she jumped out of her vehicle with a weapon, cocked it and pointed it at Hill in abject fear and terror. And for this — for pointing a weapon at a woman who’d harassed her and then hit her car — she’s the one who went to jail. She and her husband, in fact.
“A day after the Wednesday evening confrontation, a husband and wife were charged with assault, and the man was fired from his Oakland University job,” The Detroit News reported at the time.
“Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper charged Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, each with one count of felonious assault, a four-year felony. The Clarkston couple each possessed one loaded firearm and CPL licenses, Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.”
We have seen the video and we deem his behavior unacceptable. The employee has been notified that his employment has been terminated by the university.
— Oakland University (@oaklandu) July 2, 2020
In a 2020 interview with the AP, Jillian revealed how she’d pulled out the gun because she’d feared for her life.
“Within moments, a second or two, I had multiple people within two feet of me and I just remember thinking I’m not going home tonight. That meant I’m about to die and I don’t want to die,” she said.
It took nearly three years, but it appears justice has finally been had.
The response on social media is one of relief over the couple winning their case but also anger over Hill and her daughter walking away scot-free despite having instigated this whole situation and effectively costing Eric his job.
“Do they get their jobs back? No. Do they get their lives back? No. Society craps on these people defending themselves with their firearms even after they won in court. The attackers never even showed up to court and the charges were dropped,” one Twitter user wrote.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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