Woman pleads guilty to 4 hate crimes after racist attack caught on-cam

By Erin Jones

Click here for updates on this story

    PLANO, Texas (KTVT) — A woman who went viral for a racially charged confrontation with four women in a Plano parking lot has pleaded guilty to hate crime charges.

Back in August of 2022, four friends were leaving Sixty Vines when they heard 59-year-old Esmeralda Upton making racially charged comments.

One friend started recording on her cell phone and another called 911. Then the incident turned physical. Three women were assaulted and a fourth was threatened.

CBS News Texas spoke to the victims shortly after the incident.

“I feel extremely humiliated that could have happened in a place like this,” Bidisha Rubra said.

“We definitely want to see justice served,” Rani Banerjee said.

As the result of a joint state and federal investigation, Upton pleaded guilty to four state hate crime charges related to the incident.

Last Friday, she was convicted on three misdemeanor assault charges and one misdemeanor terrorist threat charge.

“Misdemeanor assault charges are not rare, but it is very rare to see the hate crime enhancement,” Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said.

Willis said the case was resolved through an agreed plea, so Upton did not testify. The women got to give their victim impact statement.

“In the victim impact, they talked about how some of them have anxiety when they’re in open spaces because of what happened to them,” Willis said. “They were very resilient. I’m very proud of each of our victims and the way they’ve come through.”

Upton was sentenced to 40 days in the Collin County Jail for each of the cases. The time will be served concurrently. She was also given two years of community supervision probation and a $500 fine for each case.

A separate civil case is still pending.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.