6-year-old charged with felony temper tantrum

6-year-old charged with felony temper tantrum

A 6-year-old girl in Avon Park, Fla., is facing felony charges after having a temper tantrum in a kindergarten class.

Desrée Watson allegedly began kicking and screaming on March 28 at the Avon Park Elementary School. Police were called, but initially had trouble subduing her because she crawled under a table. Watson was eventually handcuffed, put in the back of a police cruiser and thrown in jail.

She was charged with felony battery. She also faces misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and disruption of a school function.

Her police report lists her as 4 1/2 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds.

Police Chief Frank Mercurio defended the arrest, stating, “When there is an outburst of violence, we have a duty to protect and make that school a safe environment. … That’s why, at this point, the person was arrested regardless what the age.”

Source: Slate Magazine

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Girl has constitutional right to wear socks with Tigger on them

A middle school student has a right under the U.S. Constitution to wear socks with a picture of Tigger on them, a federal judge has ruled.

The judge issued an injunction against a Napa Valley, Calif., school dress code that required students to wear solid colors and outlawed words, pictures and logos.

The ruling is a victory for Toni Kay Scott, 14, who was punished by the school for wearing the controversial socks with the bouncy Winnie-the-Pooh character. As a result of the socks, Scott had been sent to a detention program called “Students With Attitude Problems.”

The school had punished other students for wearing a breast cancer awareness pin and a T-shirt promoting an anti-drug program.

Back in 2005, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled that there is no right under the First Amendment to make a fashion statement or to look nice. But the judge in the Napa Valley case said even if that were true, a school can’t ban all forms of expression whatsoever.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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Charges dropped against woman who stared at police dog

A woman who was arrested for staring at a police dog has had the charges dropped after a Vermont prosecutor viewed a videotape of the incident and determined that no laws were broken.

“Prosecuting a woman for staring at a police dog is absurd,” said the woman’s lawyer, Kelly Green, who added that staring at a dog is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment.

The woman, Jayna Hutchinson, who later registered a .218 blood-alcohol content, approached a police officer as he was investigating a bar fight and complained that one of the men involved in the fight had previously assaulted her. The officer made some disparaging comments about Hutchinson’s appearance and eventually arrested her.

“If she’d been small and pretty and had been complaining of being assaulted, he may have done more to investigate her claims,” Green observed.

Prosecutor Will Porter said the officer acted appropriately to get Hutchinson “out of his hair” so he could investigate the fight, but that criminal charges were inappropriate because staring at a police dog does not violate a state law against “intentionally tormenting” law enforcement animals.

Source: Barre-Montpelier (Vt.) Times Argus

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Butts facing three years in jail for stealing toilet paper

A woman named Suzanne Marie Butts is facing a possible three-year jail term after being arrested for trying to sneak three rolls of two-ply bathroom tissue out of a county courthouse in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Courthouse employees had suspected a serial toilet-paper thief was at work for some time. Toilet paper appeared to be used up at “unusually high rates, even for county employees,” according to the Marshalltown Times-Republican newspaper.

A court worker allegedly caught Butts, 38, red-handed, walking out of a storeroom with the tissue.

Although stealing three rolls of toilet paper is a minor offense, Butts’ sentence could be enhanced as a result of prior theft convictions.

“She’s facing potentially three years of incarceration for three rolls of toilet paper,” Marshalltown Police Chief Lon Walker told reporters, adding, “See, I can’t say it with a straight face.”

Sources: Associated Press, Marshalltown Times-Republican

— Compiled by Thomas F. Harrison
Thomas F. Harrison is vice president of new business development at Lawyers Weekly.