HELLO! HELLO! I'M IN A MOVIE! A MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVIE!
Posted on 07/28/2004 10:36:53 AM PDT by Cagey
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."
I feel a limerick coming on.
"Warronnica Harris"
Will this time to be a funny name thread?
This is why I rarely bother going to the movies.
"Oh, I think someone has one of those funny laser pointers."
But I doubt it.
There are times when I would have liked to use a .45 in a movie theatre.
Sounds like the off duty officer was the victim of a hate crime.
Bet she had the whole 'head bobbin' thing going on...
A CINDERELLA SYORY
ANCHORMAN
CATWOMAN
DE-LOVELY
HARRY POTTER & PRISONER OF AZK
I, ROBOT
KING ARTHUR
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
SHREK 2
SPIDER-MAN 2
THE ADVENTURES OF OCIEE NASH
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
THE CLEARING
THE NOTEBOOK
WHITE CHICKS
Another news report identified it as "Catwoman".
Is that the one where Cinderalla wears an Eastern Indian gown?
Who is "AZK" and why is he/she/it holding prisoners? <|:)~
Not to make excuses, but you have to expect a certain level of off color behavior when you go see a film like The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Given this is the city of St. Pete we're talking about, I predict the city gets successfully sued for several million dollars (and the cop loses his career).
Where was the spraying done? If it was in the theater, a lot of people had to be affected...that stuff goes EVERYWHERE.
HELLO! HELLO! I'M IN A MOVIE! A MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVIE!
Could have been worse, the police officer could have asked them for an identification......LOL!
It never ceases to amaze me how self centered some people are. Like those that use cell phones in a theater, or church (I've seen this happen in a church TWICE).
It also never ceases to amaze me how many people do as this couple did, and go to jail because of it. bottom line is they should have shut off the cell phone and shut up.
Oh well....hope they like the color orange.
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