A New Jersey woman was arrested and is facing several charges, including harassment and assault after she reportedly hurled racial slurs and threw objects from at a Black motel clerk last week.
According to ABC6, on Monday, July 19, authorities responded to a report of a disorderly woman at a Super 8 motel in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, a little after midnight. When officers arrived, they found Elizabeta M. Trzeciak, a white woman from South River, New Jersey, that the police later described as intoxicated, in the parking lot. The 46-year-old white woman, who had been staying at a nearby hotel, was initially released to a family.
A few hours later, police received the video footage of the woman going on a racist tirade as the employee sat calmly behind the desk. She reportedly referred to the man, who was not identified, as the “n-word.” At one point, she offered him $300 after demanding that he call her, yelling, “Look, you n-gger, give me a call, Black man. Give me a call.”
She later tells the clerk, “No one f-cking wants to look at you. Come on, Black man. Come on, n-gger.” She then starts throwing objects that were on the desk before shouting, “You know what your name is? N-gger.” Trzeciak eventually leaves, but not before yelling, “Good luck, idiot.”
Mount Laurel Police Chief Stephen Riedener said that while they couldn’t arrest someone for using a racial slur, they could be charged with bias intimidation when there is an underlying offense, such as assault.
The police department later released a statement saying that there was a delay in obtaining the information regarding what took place. But police later leveled charges against Trzeciak, a change of course the statement explained thusly: “Based on the evidence from the video and again interviewing the victim, Ms. Trzeciak was charged with bias intimidation, assault, harassment, and disorderly conduct.”
Michelle Banfe, vice president of operations for Delco Development, which owns the Mount Laurel Super 8, told ABC that she “knew when I saw that video it was going to go viral because the behavior is just so appalling.”
The footage did, in fact, circle social media. On Wednesday, July 21, the clip was uploaded to Instagram by someone claiming to be the 21-year-old clerk’s sibling. In the caption, they wrote, “This happened in Mt. laurel the other day! She was talking to my little brother who handled this wayyyy better than I ever could! “ They added, “BUT… we need to find this lady because this is NOT OKAY! Help us find her. #SHARE.” The clip was viewed over 18,300 times since its posting.
Trzeciak appeared in court on Thursday, July 23. She will remain in custody until her detention hearing Om Wednesday, July 28, in Burlington County Superior Court.
