Ku Klux Klan flag | JeDonna Dinges photo
Note from VOD Editor Diane Bukowski
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy refused to file hate crime charges against a Grosse Pointe resident flying the KKK flag (above) next door to his Black neighbors, who have now won a federal lawsuit against the man.
Meanwhile, Worthy’s office is spending millions in taxpayer dollars trying to return exonerated Detroiters Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy and Darrell ‘Apple’ Ewing to prison for life, despite clear proof of their innocence upheld by higher courts. Other wrongly incarcerated MDOC prisoners like Kevin Sykes and Steven Williams, along with an estimated 30% of the MDOC population, continue to fight for freedom against deeply corrupt police and prosecutors across Michigan.
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A Michigan family’s racial harassment lawsuit against neighbor with KKK flag ends with a settlement
By:Ben Solis-May 14, 20263:16 pmUpdated 7:51 pm
JeDonna Matthews Dinges /Photo by Ken Coleman
A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a Black Grosse Pointe Park resident against her former neighbor, who was accused in February 2021 of racial intimidation for hanging a Ku Klux Klan flag in his window that faced Je Donna and India Dinges’ home.
The settlement agreement and the monetary award associated with the settlement in Dinges v. Wilde has not been disclosed. Still, the Dinges family viewed the settlement as a major civil rights win and yet another hedge against ethnic and racial intimidation in Michigan.
“We felt terrorized. We feared for our lives,” said Je Donna Dinges. “In the face of hatred and bigotry, we should all stand up, speak up, and fight back. This case was our way of doing that.”
Dinges and her daughter India claimed they were the victim of racial intimidation when they identified a Ku Klux Klan flag hanging in the window of their neighbor Ryan Wilde’s home. The window faced the Dinges’ dining room. India Dinges was a college student at the time, and said in a statement that it interfered with her daily life.
“During Covid, when the public was advised to stay inside, I could not find comfort in my own home,” India Dinges said.
Grosse Pointe Park’s Department of Public Safety responded by sending detectives to visit Dinges’ neighbor, who was told to remove the flag.
The Dinges family filed a racial harassment and discrimination lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The lawsuit came after Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy declined to bring charges against Wilde, saying the flying of the flag was abhorrent but did not rise to the level of a criminal act of intimidation.
The incident with the flag spurred a march in support of her and her daughter India as they sought a civil remedy against Wilde. The incident also led Dinges to co-found the Ethnic Intimidation Law Amendment Work Group, which advocated for stronger hate crime and ethnic intimidation laws beginning in 2021.
‘We want to make sure that everyone is safe from any hate crimes’
The work group was an early leader of the effort later picked up by state Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield) to enhance the state’s hate crime laws. That effort culminated in victory when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2024 signed the Michigan Hate Crime Act into law.
The act overhauled the state’s 1988 Ethnic Intimidation Act with new penalties with stronger teeth to protect against racial discrimination, violence and the type of harassment the Dinges family endured from Wilde.
Aside from the new law becoming effective in 2025, a challenge to the Dinges family lawsuit from Wilde attempted to prevent the lawsuit from moving forward. The motion to dismiss the civil case was ultimately denied by U.S. District Judge Linda Parker of the Eastern District of Michigan.
The Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School represented the Dinges family in this lawsuit.
“Je Donna and India Dinges are true heroes,” said CRLI Student Attorney Ku’Juana Quinn in a statement. “They bravely stepped forward and fought for justice not just for themselves but for everyone in Michigan.”
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