Saginaw optometrist who threatened Starbucks' BLM supporters heads to prison
A Saginaw optometrist is going to federal prison for 10 months for threatening to harm Black Lives Matter supporters in a series of rants he made over the phone to Starbucks employees, who got an earful about his beef with workers wearing BLM T-shirts.
According to court records, 62-year-old Kenneth Pilon admitted to calling nine Starbucks stores in 2020 and telling those who answered his calls to relay this message to employees wearing BLM T-shirts: “The only good (N-word) is a dead (N-word).”
Pilon also admitted to telling one Starbucks employee, “I’m gonna go out and lynch me a (N-word).”
Starbucks stores weren't his only target. The FBI says Pilon also left nooses at Kroger and Walmart parking lots in Saginaw, and also tucked one inside a beverage cooler at a 7-Eleven store with a handwritten note attached that read: “An accessory to be worn with your ‘BLM’ T-shirt. Happy protesting!'"
Threatening messages to numerous Starbucks stores
“Pilon’s hateful conduct, motivated by racial intolerance, was intended to intimidate the victims as well as create fear within the African-American community,” said Detroit's FBI chief James A. Tarasca.
According to court records, Pilon launched his hate campaign two days after Starbucks announced that it would provide 250,000 BLM T-shirts to employees who wanted to wear them during their shifts. It was the summer of 2020, and the nation was witnessing a wave of protests condemning the May 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Pilon was miffed by the movement, and left threatening messages at Starbucks stores in Saginaw, Flint, Birch Run, Allen Park, Oak Park and Ann Arbor. One month after calling the coffee stores, he started dropping nooses in parking lots.
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On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington sentenced Pilon to 10 months in prison for his crimes, along with one year of supervised release. Pilon had previously pleaded guilty to willfully intimidating and attempting to intimidate citizens from engaging in lawful speech and protests in support of the BLM movement.
“The nooses, the threat letters, and the calls to Starbucks were all intended to terrorize the targeted victims solely because of their race,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will always stand up to race-based threats of violence, which have no place in civilized society.”
What his attorney said on his behalf
As Pilon's lawyer tried to keep his client out of prison, prosecutors argued he deserved to be locked up.
"A custodial sentence is necessary to account for the seriousness of the conduct at issue here: repeated death threats to Black people and Black Lives Matter supporters," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Turkelson wrote in a sentencing memo, adding: "He weaponized the vile language and visceral symbols of the Jim Crow era to communicate his death threats."
The prosecutor also noted that the government concedes that part of Pilon's sentence should include mental health treatment.
The judge gave Pilon exactly the punishment that federal prosecutors had sought — 10 months in prison.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, he faced a maximum of one year in prison.
Pilon's lawyer, however, asked the judge to spare his client from prison and give him home confinement instead, arguing Pilon suffered from depression, anxiety, physical pain and isolation, and that his "irrational and repugnant" behavior was "totally out of character."
"Pilon is deeply remorseful and embarrassed by his actions," defense attorney Barry Wolf wrote in a sentencing memo.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Saginaw optometrist who threatened BLM supporters heads to prison
