Made for News Media Hate Crime
Executive Summary
Julie Ohashi of Highland Township alleged that a large swastika painted on a tree near her home on April 1, 2023, was meant to stop her school-related political activism by intimidating her into silence. She also asserted the swastika is a hate crime because her husband is a minority.[1]
She lodged her complaint with law enforcement. In short order local law enforcement concluded that no hate crime had been committed against her. Ohashi made a federal case out of this by also filing a complaint with the FBI. Within days the FBI also concluded that there was no evidence of a hate crime.
Over a month after both law enforcement agencies concluded there was no evidence of a hate crime, Ohashi publicly asserted she was a victim of a hate crime.
She spoke at a public meeting, and she mounted a media campaign. Ohashi asserted that the FBI is investigating her complaint as a hate crime. While the FBI would not confirm or deny that it was conducting an ongoing investigation, the local police report states that both local and federal authorities had concluded Ohashi is not the victim of a hate crime.
Questions regarding Ohashi’s veracity were revealed in the police report authored by local authorities. This police report was obtained by Livingston County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. As chronicled in the police report, Ohashi made significant misrepresentations to local and federal law enforcement agencies.
On May 9, 2023, MLive published a story about Ohashi’s swastika complaint. Using misleading reporting MLive wrongly implicated Livingston County. Specifically, MLive published this story using a date line of LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MI when the alleged victim and the alleged crime scene were in OAKLAND COUNTY, MI. MLive wanted readers to believe this alleged hate crime occurred in Livingston County.
Nakagiri’s full report and related documents are shown below. Links are provided to Commissioner Nakagiri’s full investigative report, the OCSO police report, police body camera video, and video of Ohashi’s public statement.
Note: Many of the citizens smeared by Julie Ohashi’s “hate crime” allegation reside in Commissioner Nakagiri’s district. He is outraged by her false allegation and is committed to defending his constituents from Ohashi’s untruthful and scurrilous attack.
[1] Fox 2 Detroit, Incidents of anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ hate on rise in Hartland, 5/25/23. Her video interview shows Ohashi appears to be Caucasian.
Links to Documents
Nakagiri’s Report: Made for News Media Hate Crime
OCSO Case Report (Police Report)
OCSO Body Camera Video: This body camera footage is from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO). Recorded on 4/2/23, this video show the initial investigation of an alleged hate crime directed toward Julie Ohashi, President of Livingston Integrity. Ohashi is the female shown in the video with brown and pink hair. During her conversation with the Deputy she stated, “My husband is the only Black person in this whole area.” (A review of her husband’s LinkedIn page showed a male who appeared to be Asian/Pacific Islander). Days later, after she read the police report, Ohashi complained to OCSO that their report incorrectly described her husband as African American. Ohashi asserted that she told OCSO personnel that her husband was dark-skinned, but not Black. OCSO personnel apologized for their “mistake.” Subsequently OCSO personnel reviewed the body camera footage and observed that Ohashi had misrepresented her husband’s race. Ohashi makes her false statement about her husband’s race at the 6:04 point in the video.
Julie Ohashi’s public statement to the Hartland School Board on May 8, 2023. During this public statement, Ohashi spoke about her experiences as the President of Livingston Integrity. Within the first five seconds of this video Ohashi stated, “My name is Julie Ohashi and I’m a Hartland Schools parent.” Publicly available records show that Ohashi and her family do not reside within the boundaries of the Hartland Consolidated School District. At the 1:07 mark she begins talking about an alleged hate crime perpetrated against her. At the 1:37 mark she stated, “So we reported the incident to the FBI and it’s being investigated as a federal hate crime.” This statement is at variance with the police report documenting the alleged hate crime incident. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) documented that both the OCSO and the FBI concluded there was no evidence of a hate crime committed against Ohashi (see OCSO Case Report 230078678). Importantly, both law enforcement agencies made their conclusions more than one month prior to Ohashi’s public statement at the May 8th school board meeting