Cell phone scuffle settled- Senior who stood up to cursing sentenced

Pioneer Press ^ | 12-15-04 | David Hanners

[Rakkasan1]

A retiree who got fed up when a cell-phone user refused to clean up his language in a restaurant in July got three months' probation Tuesday. Unlike many defendants who walk into Ramsey County District Judge Paulette Flynn's courtroom to plead guilty to a crime, 79-year-old Bill W. Stevenson got thumbs-up signs from attorneys and others in the court who identified with his motives, if not his actions. "I felt a lot of sympathy, and they were giving me the thumbs-up when I walked out of the courtroom," Stevenson said after pleading guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct. "I think I could've won my case by going to trial, with a sympathetic jury. I've had over 30 calls and letters and e-mails, and I've not had one negative call. They're all on my side." The bagel bakery imbroglio happened July 15 when Stevenson and another retired 3M engineer, Sten Gerfast, 74, were sitting at a table at Bruegger's in the Sun Ray Shopping Center and going over a design Gerfast had invented. Jesse Russell Tabor, 40, of Minneapolis entered the bakery with his 13-year-old daughter. In an interview after the incident, Tabor said he was talking on his cell phone with a man whose home he was remodeling. Tabor said in the interview he didn't recall cursing while on the phone. Stevenson and Gerfast remember it differently. "He was using the F-word against this guy he was talking to," Stevenson said. "There was an argument on the phone. The third time he walked by our booth where Mr. Gerfast and I were trying to design something, Mr. Gerfast said to me, 'Should I do something about it?' I thought a moment and thought, 'What can you do in a case like this?'

[MamaB]

He was wrong, too. My mother is 100 and she and my dad never, ever used that kind of language. Why has it become so common with people today? Don't they have other words to use? Probably not if they are in public education classes. It is wrong and I will not put up with it. Since I am around people I have known for many years, no one uses that language in public places. The people at my Southern Baptist Church do not say things like that either.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Hogwash. If you can't get through due to weak signal strength, what do you do? You move.

How ever did we survive making emergency phone calls from land lines? You do remember when the only phone access was from hardwired lines, don't you? It boggles the mind.

[A knight without armor]

Oh no! Illegal? Oh rats! I got all excited and found one at

http://www.grandtrades.net/key1.htm

Dang. I was happy for a few minutes there.

[monday]

There is NO excuse for physically attacking another person except self defense from a PHYSICAL ATTACK. If Tabor had pulled out a gun and shot the old guy, it would have been he who would have claimed self defense not the older guy. It is this sort of escalation of events that the laws against physically attacking others is designed to prevent.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I turned the tv on the other day and a show was on where nearly everyone on the screen was using language like that. Why do they think language like this should be on tv?

The television industry has now implemented a device on the remote control for people who are offended by such programming. Depending on the model year of your television, you may have one and just not realized it. Look at the remoted and see if you can find a button labeled "Off". : )

[MamaB]

Sometimes I think that too. I do not care to know about a person's private life in a store. I have one and I hardly ever use it. Since I am in the car by myself, I do take it if I remember which is not too often. I never use more than a few minutes a month and most months, I never use any at all.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

All cell phones should be outlawed.

There are a lot of people that agree with you. The majority of them live in Lancaster, PA and Amana, IA. : )

[MamaB]

I change the station, thank you very much!

[monday]

"How ever did we survive making emergency phone calls from land lines? You do remember when the only phone access was from hardwired lines, don't you?"

We live differently now. Doctors and other emergency personnel no longer sit next to a hard wired phone when on duty. They are out and about.

As for your other question, no. Almost one quarter of the earths population has cell phones now. They are coming very close to outnumbering land lines. In developing countries new subscribers for cell phones far out number new subscribers for land lines. Time to join the rest of us in the 21 century O.C.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I change the station, thank you very much!

Good for you! Now stop your b*tching. Some of us are trying to watch The Sopranos!!! LOL

[Safetgiver]

Maybe that's the reason I hate them! Lancaster isn't far away from me at all!!

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

As it is, Lil' Jesse Tabor found himself humiliated and on his keister, up ended by a 79 year old Hercules. ROFL! It's too bad no one thought to use a picture phone to take a candid shot of Tabor's humiliation.

Since you want to talk hypothetically, if Tabor had produced a gun, then perhaps later that day the police could have rid society of the punk Jesse Tabor. The police kill punks, even in blue states.

[monday]

"How ever did we survive making emergency phone calls from land lines?"

PS. many didn't survive. People in auto wrecks and others who have accidents far from land lines owe their lives to cell phones and the speed at which they can summon help.

[Safetgiver]

Geez, I've heard business calls, phonesex, personal calls, wakeup calls, emergency calls and whatever. This was from the same person in Dulles in a 25 minute period.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

I think bleeding heart is comparing you to the Amish, if I'm not mistaken.

[monday]

"The police kill punks, even in blue states."

? self defense? The scenario was self defense? lol..oh well, never mind. In your imaginary world the police kill people you find offensive, not those who break the law.

[delacoert]

And when you punch someone for swearing, you will go to jail.

A Good Punch In The Nose

You may be right, but something valuable has been lost since a good crisp punch in the nose to an A-hole became so socially unacceptable that criminal charges are the norm.

[Safetgiver]

Yeah, I knew. Them Stolzfus' is good people (Sometimes).

[rcocean]

Baloney.

All the old guy did was try to take his cell phone.

Shoot a 79 year old man because he tried to take your cell phone will land you in prison for a long time.

Except,in DC or SF, in which case you'll never be arrested.

[pepperdog]

singing "Jesus Loves Me."

You gotta be kidding, they'd put you in jail for a year for doing that--probably call it a hate crime! This country has gone crazy. We can see it right here on this thread, supposedly sane and mature people demanding their rights to curse in public be respected.