Kaileigh Schmidt, 21, of Hattiesburg, was booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center at noon Wednesday and charged with two counts of obscene communication
A Mississippi woman who was jailed after she accused her parents of being racist on Facebook leading to them receiving ‘thousands’ of death threats has been freed from custody after 24 hours, her attorney said.
Kaileigh Schmidt, 21, of Hattiesburg, was booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center at noon Wednesday and charged with two counts of obscene communication.
Schmidt posted a series of screenshots to Facebook on June 5 allegedly showing her father and stepmother using racial slurs.
She also sent the messages to Antifa’s and Black Lives Matter’s social pages, along with her parents’ address, phone numbers and pictures of them.
In one of the messages, said to be authored by her father, he wrote that her mother was crying because Schmidt was ‘partying with n*****s. If you want us to keep helping I can’t see that s*** no more. I’m blown away n*****s.’
Schmidt responded by texting ‘Don’t call them that. It doesn’t matter of they are black or white they are all down to earth people and I’ve been friends with them ever since I’ve been in Hattiesburg. They were there for me when yal weren’t.’
She was arrested Wednesday and released the following day after a judge in the Jones County Justice Court dropped all charges, her attorney Carlos Moore said
The 21-year-old also replied to comments her father texted to her about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She told her father officer Derek Chauvin was ‘NOT doing his job. What he did was MURDER.’
She continued to write that her father was ‘f****d in the head,’ if he believed the officer was doing the right thing. Schmidt added she was ‘taking a stand with the black community’ and said she was unfazed by her parent’s threats to no longer speak to her and block her on social media.
‘Yal may be blood but they are family to me,’ Schmidt wrote of her friends on the receiving end of her father’s ire. ‘And I’m fine with getting my own insurance …
“And if you keep being ugly and spreading racist s – – t I’ll blast yal on Facebook insta etc and let the world give yal a taste of how it feels … If yal are Christians like yal claim yal will love everyone equally but yal dont yal are hypocrites.
The argument continues with her writing, ‘I know all lives matter the difference is that we as white people where (sic) NEVER oppressed.’
Her father responded, ‘And not a single person alive has been oppressed that was wayyyyyyy before all of our time u goofball.’
Schmidt said by sharing the messages she had hoped for her parents to ‘go viral’, but quickly the post was shared thousands of times and her father and stepmother quickly started receiving death threats.
The fallout started after Schmidt’s parents took her car away from her, police said.
Schmidt posted a series of screenshots to Facebook on June 5 allegedly showing her father and stepmother using racial slurs
Schmidt has since taken to Facebook once more, insisting what her parents did was ‘very wrong’, but she does not ‘condone violence towards them either. Family or not violence doesn’t help anything. Change doesn’t happen with violence. So please anyone that’s making threats towards them need to stop. We cant fight and win with violence.’
‘My parents are RACIST and I’m tired of it,’ Schmidt wrote in her post. ‘I tagged the piece of s***s so yal can blast them too! They aren’t my family anymore!’
Schmidt also claimed her stepmother beat her for their falling out, while her dad stood and watched calling her a ‘n***** loving whore’. She also post pictures of what she claimed were bruises caused by the alleged beating.
Threats to kill family members and burn down their home quickly flooded in, in the post’s wake. Specific threats were also leveled against Schmidt’s younger siblings, including one person saying they would rape her and make her family watch.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Department had to conduct extra patrols around their home in Petal in light of the threats.
‘Members of different churches, preachers, people of all different races have been trying to bring peace, but now they’re getting death threats, too,’ investigator Reuben Bishop told the Laurel Leader Call at the time. ‘It got out of hand real quick.’
‘She spent a night in jail for simply exercising her First Amendment right on Facebook,’ her attorney Carlos Moore said.
Schmidt was arrested Wednesday and released the following day after a judge in the Jones County Justice Court dropped all charges, her attorney Carlos Moore said.
‘She spent a night in jail for simply exercising her First Amendment right on Facebook,’ Moore said.
‘Now, we are prepared to fight for her in the civil arena because someone maliciously prosecuted her and she was falsely arrested and she was falsely imprisoned – and we want to get justice for her.’
Schmidt has since taken to Facebook once more, insisting what her parents did was ‘very wrong’, but she does not ‘condone violence towards them either. Family or not violence doesn’t help anything. Change doesn’t happen with violence. So please anyone that’s making threats towards them need to stop. We cant fight and win with violence.’
She also posted a message about starting a GoFundMe ‘like yal are wanting, as much as I need a new car and everything and as much help as I need I’d hate to take money from anyone, definitely people I dont even know but are being kind out of your own hearts! … Thank you all so much for showing me your love and support!’
Law enforcement are continuing to watch over her parent’s home.
‘I hope maybe this shows people to think about what they post,’ Bishop said to the Leader Call. ‘This turned into a big mess real quick.’