Saginaw optometrist pleads guilty to making death threats against BLM supporters

Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press
·2 min read

A retired optometrist from Saginaw pleaded guilty in federal district court on Tuesday to charges that he willfully intimidated Black Lives Matter supporters from participating in lawful speech and protests.

Kenneth Pilon, 61, called nine Starbucks stores with death threats and left multiple nooses in parking lots and a 7-Eleven, targeting BLM supporters in June and July of 2020.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Pilon specifically pleaded guilty to the first and fourth counts filed against him:

  • Count 1: Calling nine Starbucks stores with death threats and racial slurs and telling "the employees answering his calls to relay specifically racial threats to Starbucks employees wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts. Pilon threatened to kill Black people, using a racial slur to refer to his intended victims."

  • Count 4: Placing a noose inside a couple's vehicle, parked in their driveway, with a handwritten note that read: "'An accessory to be worn with your BLM t-shirt. Happy protesting!'”

Pilon called Starbucks stores in Saginaw, Flint, Birch Run, Allen Park, Oak Park and Ann Arbor over the course of about an hour on June 14, 2020, according to court records.

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Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the news release that the noose is "a vile symbol of hatred and violence that harkens back to the Jim Crow era, to convey a threat of racial violence. Racially-driven threats of violence simply have no place in our society today, and the Department of Justice will continue to prosecute any individual who engages in this type of threatening conduct."

Pilon will be sentenced on March 23.

Contact Nour Rahal: nrahal@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Saginaw man pleads guilty in death threats against BLM supporters