Posted on 08/04/2010 4:51:50 PM PDT by mdittmar
TAVARES, Fla. -- A Lake County mother was arrested at a children’s splash park after her white t-shirt got wet. Now, she's suing the city of Tavares over her arrest. She told WFTV police took an embarrassing situation and turned it into discrimination.
A hot day in April at the Tavares splash park turned into Janet Lovett's own personal nightmare. She took her 7-year-old son to cool off, but before the day was done she found herself behind bars, facing an arrest record for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest without violence.
“I started shaking. I feel nervous. My son was inside park with husband. I was alone,” she said.
A park employee asked Lovett to leave, because the white t-shirt she was wearing had become wet and her padded bra was showing. She says she left, but outside the park gate a police officer approached her and asked her for ID and her name.
“Very scared,” she said. “I've never been arrested before."
The police report indicates Lovett didn't give her name fast enough. The mom says she was scared and wanted to know why she was getting arrested.
Lovett’s attorney, Howard Marks, is demanding those same answers from the city. He says the police had no legal right to ask Lovett for ID, because no crime had been committed.
‘If they were wearing a bra, it's not illegal in the state of Florida. It's not indecent exposure. It's not a crime,” Marks said.
Marks intends to sue the city for violation of civil rights, false arrest and malicious prosecution. He thinks there was more to her arrest that day than the outfit that was deemed inappropriate.
“Either the police were so lacking in training and so incompetent to the law or trying to ID someone who was a potential illegal alien,” Marks said.
Lovett is a U.S. citizen.
The city of Tavares said it does not comment on pending litigation. The police chief told WFTV his officers operated within policy that day
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
Post 75 didn’t involve me. I’d rather talk about water parks but someone else wants to get all nasty.
exactly
You mean 72? Its all good. You’re both good freepers.
There’s too much projecting here about what happened and what was seen.
You not only see both sides you see sides that don’t exist. You’re vizzonairy! LOL
Like I said, unless he’s high functioning.
I’d take the case.
Then when the DA declines to prosecute, they claim she was "let off".
Tavares Splash Park is not private property it's owned by the city of Tavares.
As usual you don't know what you're talking about.
$s to donuts this isn’t the whole story.
Wondering if the name she delayed in giving, didn’t match any ID she might have had with her.
No, is the SAO declines to prosecute, then she can proceed with her civil litigation as mentioned in the article.
Agreed. Although it may seem unfair at times, it's a very important property right.
If they were in a padded bra, they likely weren't offensively large, vicious boobies.
"A" solution. Not "the" solution. There is no "the" solution, unfortunately. We really don't know what happened here.
Although I'm inclined to think that even if the woman was smart mouthed and obnoxious, it would have been smarter for the cops to exercise restraint and simply escort her to her car and see her off.
“Just like the guys in the movie deliverance, eh?”
It was a movie! Based on a fictional book! Fiction, have ever encountered that before or are you one of those people who sit at rapt attention as an actress who played a farm wife in a movie testifies before Dims in Congress about how tough life is on the farm?
She's middle aged and has the weigh that comes from having kids but is really not that bad, especiallty considering the quality of police mugshot photography.
For those who didn't listen to the end of the video report, the last line from the announcer is the the police dropped the charges.
Lucky for her she was not in Vegas. I can see the call to 911 now, armed woman [the slide show shows she has two arms], acting irratically, got wet at a water park, likely on some drug. Then the cops could have come and blown her away.
The cop who arrested her should have been fired immediately.
You posted to 75. I don’t take well to a condescending tone, or being called nasty names.
That’s always possible but the report says she’s a U.S. citizen. So the illegal alien without valid ID angle doesn’t factor in this story.
Of course, she could have been a U.S citizen with fake ID but those facts are not. as they say, in evidence.
To be honest, if I was asked to leave the facility and peacefully complied with the request and then was stopped outside by a police officer and asked for my ID, I would probably ask “what for?” before producing it.
Is asking that simple question (wanting to know why the police officer is stopping you) and waiting to get an answer enough to get you arrested in this country now days?
BTW, for those who have not watched the video to the end, the charges were dropped.
Private property in Florida does not have to be posted. If you tell a person they are not welcome and they are trespassing then they must leave. If they do not it becomes actual trespassing.
If they are armed then its armed trespassing.
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