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?'

[ZULU]

Sorry, this should be directed to Monday, not Old Cracker with whom I agree.