(WWJ/AP) The leader of the Genesee County Republican Party was sentenced Tuesday afternoon after admitting he made a harassing, late-night phone call to a Democratic official from the Upper Peninsula.
Matthew Smith, 23, was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay $650. The judge also ordered Smith to preform 240 hours of community service and to write an essay about the effects of bullying.
Smith's victim — Houghton County Clerk, Jennifer Kelly — said she received the call in March of 2020 around 1 a.m., where the caller had threatened to kill her dogs and throw them in the trash.
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“He called me to scare me. He succeeded. To live how I have for the past two years has been more than I can tell you, your honor,” Kelly said at the sentencing, according to MLive.
“I have hid in my own home. I have been afraid to go outside. I have avoided functions. I have feared losing my animals ... What Matt Smith has done to me ... has truly changed my life."
Kelly said she has been suffering from PTSD from the ordeal.
Smith admitted on Tuesday that he made the call to help a friend and fellow Republican, who was set to run against Kelly later in 2020.
He issued an apology to Kelly during his sentencing.
While Smith admits to making the call, he has denied making threats to poison Kelly's dogs, a detail Kelly insists the caller made.
“What hurts me the most is being accused of threatening to kill and poison dogs,” Smith told the judge, MLive reported.
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"I’m here today to (say) that never happened. I never threatened to poison and kill dogs. I’m a dog owner. People in my community are signing recall petitions … thinking I’m an animal abuser and that’s simply not true.”
Smith serves as a Davidson school board member, where an effort to recall him as been made.
Prosecutors have agreed not to interfere with Smith being sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act in exchange for his guilty plea. This would make Smith's conviction eligible to be removed from his record.