Editor’s note: This article includes a description of a racist attack, including references to slurs.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Three years after a racial attack at a Kentwood hotel, the man behind it has begun serving time in a Michigan prison.
A Kent County judge in late July sentenced Joel Peter Venema of Allendale to at least two years in prison and a maximum of 10.
Venema pleaded guilty in April to ethnic intimidation, assault with intent to do great bodily less than murder or by strangulation and assaulting, resisting or obstructing police.
The attack happened in August 2021 at Staybridge Suites in Kentwood, but Venema’s guilty plea and sentencing were delayed due to appeals.
“The justice system works for us,” said Jackie Beard, the victim in the assault. “It might take a while, but, hey, it got done.”
On the evening of Aug. 7, 2021, Beard had just gotten off work and was enjoying the pool at Staybridge Suites with his family.
“Then all of the sudden, this guy comes in with a lot of kids,” recalled Beard, speaking to Target 8 recently. “We’re sitting in the hot tub, and I was like, ‘Please don’t come over here.’ They came over here. Then he got to body slamming one of the kids, and, you know, a hot tub is very shallow. So, I was like, ‘Can you please stop that and take that away from me and my family?’”