Couple Pepper Sprayed After Cell Phone Call In Movie Theater *updated w/ allisolm's post*

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anxi80

anxi80

Lifer
Jul 7, 2002
12,294
2
0
link: Two arrested, pepper sprayed over phone at St. Petersburg movie

Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004

Two arrested, pepper sprayed over phone at St. Petersburg movie

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A college student who took a cell phone call from her mother in a movie theater was pepper sprayed by an officer and charged with disorderly conduct, along with her boyfriend.

Warronnica Harris, 23, was at the Muvico theater at BayWalk Saturday night, watching the opening credits to Catwoman when her cell phone rang.

"It was my mom calling me," Harris said. "It was a family emergency."

Harris said she spoke so quietly that her mother couldn't hear her. Then Officer John Douglas shone a flashlight in her eyes.

He asked Harris and her boyfriend, Terrell "KC" Tolson, 25, to leave. He pushed Harris in the hallway, then pepper sprayed both of them in the lobby, the couple said. Neither Harris nor Tolson has a criminal record.

Police denied their account, saying Harris refused to end her cell phone conversation, yelled at the Douglas and refused to leave the theater. Her boyfriend also refused to leave and threatened the officer, police said.

Witnesses said the pair did nothing wrong.

Marcia Gray, a 49-year-old Tampa accountant, was in the lobby when the couple were pepper sprayed.

"The man turned and asked the officer why he was making them leave and the cop just maced him in the face," Gray said. "They weren't yelling or touching him. The man bent over and the girl asked why he maced her boyfriend. Then the cop maced her, and she dropped her soda."
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***update***
Originally posted by: allisolm
Police: Belligerence led to couple's arrest
An off-duty officer's version of the cell phone incident in a movie theater differs from that of the pair.
By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer
Published July 28, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


ST. PETERSBURG - The couple arrested Saturday at the Muvico theater at BayWalk repeatedly refused to end a cell phone call, used profanity toward an off-duty police officer and physically threatened him, St. Petersburg police say.

A police report released Tuesday sharply contradicts the accounts of Warronnica Harris and Terrell "KC" Tolson, as well as two witnesses, who claim Officer John Douglas acted without provocation when he used pepper spray to subdue the couple in the hallway of the theater.

Harris and Tolson were later charged with disorderly conduct.

The report, written by Douglas, says he was working off-duty in the BayWalk plaza when an unidentified woman complained about someone using a laser pointer in the theater.

Douglas, 41, entered the theater, saw people talking on cell phones and asked them to turn them off. Among the people he saw was Harris.

"She (Harris) said she could talk as much as she wanted on her phone," the report said. Douglas again asked Harris to stop, and again she refused.

Douglas told Harris to leave and that he would get their money back.

The couple got up, but Tolson "started to yell at the audience," the report reads. "He (Tolson) also started to yell at me. ... He stated ... I needed to keep my hands off him. That he would not go to jail because he would beat my a--."

As Douglas was escorting the couple into the hallway, Harris and Tolson "were yelling the entire time. (Tolson) kept escalating the situation."

When Tolson came at Douglas with a clenched fist, the officer wrote, he used his pepper spray. "Then (Harris) said she was going to "hit this cracker upside his head', and she swung her drink at my head."

Douglas said he then used his pepper spray on Harris.

Ray Weil, named as a witness in the report, was working as an usher in the theater that night. He entered the hallway just as Douglas, Harris and Tolson were walking by.

"As the cop was trying to get the guy to calm down," Weil, 20, told the Times, "the woman hit the officer in the back of the head with the soda. Then he (Douglas) maced her."

Two women, including one who knew Tolson, said Monday they agreed with the story presented by Harris and Tolson.

Harris and Tolson, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, said Monday that Harris' cell phone conversation ended before Douglas arrived, that Douglas pushed Harris, and that they made no threatening remarks to Douglas before he used pepper spray.

Harris, 23, has no adult criminal record.

But Tolson, 25, was convicted of petty theft and resisting arrest in Hillsborough County in 1999, both misdemeanors.

He also has a juvenile record that includes convictions for assault on a school employee in 1996, and grand theft and battery on a law enforcement officer in 1995.

Douglas, a 14-year veteran of the police department, has no formal disciplinary actions in his personnel file.

Douglas declined comment Tuesday.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, said Tuesday that the matter now rests with the State Attorney's Office.

"We (the Police Department) were halfway expecting a complaint to be made. And there is potential a complaint may be made. But no complaint has been made."
Click to expand...
***update²***
smoking gun link courtesy of slick230
 
anxi80

anxi80

Lifer
Jul 7, 2002
12,294
2
0
im kind of curious to get all the details to this. i mean, a majority of us have dealt with this, and it is indeed annoying, but where should the line be drawn? but if she was indeed disruptive, and they were acting difficult, should a punishment like this be justified? perhaps not necessarily mace, but being physically escorted from the permises perhaps? im kind of curious to get both sides of the story though.
 
K

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
Too far, from what I read. But family emergency, but not urgent enough for her to leave her seat so she can leave sooner? Lil b1tch
 
P

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,155
59
91
"It was my mom calling me," Harris said. "It was a family emergency."
Click to expand...
Police denied their account, saying Harris refused to end her cell phone conversation, yelled at the Douglas and refused to leave the theater. Her boyfriend also refused to leave and threatened the officer, police said.
Click to expand...
If both of these statements are true, and there really was a family emergency, why didn't they get up and leave immediately, instead of having to be asked to leave? I seriously doubt the cop was standing right there when the phone rang.

Two possibilities here: Either you have a total asswipe, rogue cop, or the police report is correct and the couple really gave him a hard time.
I'm going to have to give the policeman the benefit of the doubt until I see a bunch of people from the lobby saying that the couple did nothing wrong.
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
1
81
whoa, we were in st. petersburg this weekend and thinking about seeing a movie there :Q were thinking about the terminal, no catwoman though :p
 
J

JustinSampson

Senior member
Aug 11, 2001
481
0
0
Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Dang. Talking on the cell phone should get you ejected, not assaulted.
Click to expand...

It should get you beaten to within inches of death. Movie theaters == No cell phones.
 
M

Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
7,089
0
0
i would sue the friggin officer for that. macing a person is the same thing as attacking someone. it causes great pain. basically, the officer "attacked" them on a fone call, which i believe violates their rights.
 
B

booger711

Platinum Member
Jun 15, 2004
2,736
1
0
inconsiderate bastards. if you get a phone call, even if its on silent, take it outside
 
T

TerryMathews

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,464
2
0
There's no justification for using mace on non-violent suspects. Under the law, mace is the equivelant of a taser or billyclub, IE a non-lethal weapon.
 
R

RagingBITCH

Lifer
Sep 27, 2003
17,618
2
76
Sounds like the cop took it personally. I hate people talking in the movie theater but from the witness accounts, it sounds like the cop just lost it. The city should be expecting a lawsuit shortly.
 
C

Cook1

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2004
6,315
0
86
Well yeah, not condoning people talking on the phones during a movie, I hate it as much as the next person. And I think to myself...god damn it I want to beat thier ass so bad right now. But I don't actually do that because I would be taken away in a flashy car...ooo flashy....anyways. The cop lost it, should have never maced them. Escorted them out of the theatre...yeah I could see that.
 
T

thomsbrain

Lifer
Dec 4, 2001
18,148
1
0
sounds like a bunch of lying a-holes on both sides of that little encounter. they probably didn't technically deserve the mace... but oh yes, it felt good reading about them getting it. ;)
 
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