LibertyLover

Couple Arrested For Asking For Directions

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions .

"In jail for eight hours -- sleeping on a concrete floor next to a toilet," Kelly said.

"It was a nightmare," Brook said. "I was in there thinking I was just dreaming and waiting to wake up."

Collins reported it was a nightmare ending to a nearly perfect day. He said the couple went to a company picnic and watched the Orioles beat Kansas City. It was their first trip to Camden Yards and asked two people for directions to Interstate 95 South when they left.

Collins said somehow they ended up in the Cherry Hill section of south Baltimore. Hopelessly lost, relief melted away concerns after they spotted a police vehicle.

"I said, 'Thank goodness, could you please get us to 95?" Kelly said.

"The first thing that she said to us was no -- you just ran that stop sign, pull over," Brook said. "It wasn't a big deal. We'll pay the stop sign violation, but can we have directions?"

"What she said was 'You found your own way in here, you can find your own way out.'" Kelly said.

Collins said the couple spotted another police vehicle and flagged that officer down for directions. But Officer Natalie Preston, a six-year veteran of the force, intervened.

"That really threw us for a loop when she stepped in between our cars," Kelly said. "(She) said my partner is not going to step in front of me and tell you directions if I'm not."

Collins reported the circumstances got worse. Kelly pulled 40 feet forward parking next to a curb and put his flashers on while Brook was on the phone to her father hoping he could help her with directions. Both her parents are police officers in the Harrisburg, Pa., area.

"(Brook's father) was in the middle of giving us directions when the officer screeched up behind us and got out of the car and asked me to step out. I obeyed," Kelly said. "I obeyed everything -- stepped out of the car, put my hands behind my back, and the next thing I know, I was getting arrested for trespassing."

"By this time, I was completely in tears," Brook said. "I said, 'Ma'am, you know, we just need your help. We are not trying to cause you any trouble. I'm not leaving him here.' What she did was walk over to my side of the car and said, 'Ok, we are taking you downtown, too.'"

Collins said the couple was released from jail without being charged with anything. Brook is now concerned the arrest may complicate a criminal background check she's going through in her job as a child care worker.

Collins said police left Kelly's car unlocked and the windows down at the impound lot. He reported a cell phone charger, pair of sunglasses and 20 CDs were stolen.

Baltimore City police said they are looking into the incident.

nerphroll

A shame upon nerph-land. And yet I am not surprised. But it's not like the cops had anything else to do. I mean we all know Baltimore has no problems with crime or drugs. Only syphillis

dedbr

of the gulf between the public and law enforcement in this country.

The public has every right to be afraid of the police and any contact with them if they are only there to harass and arrest them for any reason they can find, even something so petty as this.

Of course the cops job is hard, but they only make it harder by incidents like this, don't they?


Somewhere in Ded Land....

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Niteshift

arrested them for trespassing on a public street

Huh?

That sounds weird.

My guess is that there is more to this story.

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Niteshift

As I suspected...........there is another side to the story:


A Baltimore police officer who arrested a young Virginia couple who claim they were asking for directions after getting lost in a South Baltimore neighborhood stated in a report that the driver argued with her and tried to tear a ticket out of a citation book.

Officer Natalie N. Preston wrote in police documents that, after she ticketed the driver for running a stop sign on Round Road in Cherry Hill, the man held onto her pen before she grabbed it back and that he then refused to leave, prompting her to arrest him and his girlfriend on suspicion of trespassing on public housing property and failing to obey a lawful order. {NS note: Now that sounds like a real charge.....and is much different that "trespassing on a public street" like the original article said}


The account offers the first explanation of the arrests from police after complaints by the couple in which they said they were arrested after asking an officer how to leave South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood.

Authorities declined to elaborate on the police report yesterday, saying the matter is being investigated by the department's Internal Affairs Division.

Prosecutors at Central Booking and Intake Center, where Joshua Kelley, 22, and Llara Brook, 20, were taken after their arrest, reviewed the officer's statement and decided not to pursue the case.

"This did not rise to a case that we believe should be criminally prosecuted," said spokeswoman Margaret T. Burns. She said the couple, who were arrested Saturday evening, were held at Central Booking for more than eight hours until prosecutors ordered them released without charges.

Police said the stop occurred about 8:25 p.m. Saturday when an officer stopped them near Round and Bridgeview roads.

In an interview last night, Kelley, who said his only previous trip to Baltimore was three years ago, said he was not trying to argue with the officer and that the officer misinterpreted his movements.

"I said, 'Before I sign this, can you please give us directions back to the highway?'" Kelley said. "I'm horrible with directions."

Kelley said he did question the officer about whether she was in a position to see the car he was driving as it passed a stop sign, but that he was "never belligerent." {NS note: He left that out of the original story too. Word of advice: You will never win the roadside argument. Save it for court}

The incident, first reported by The Examiner, began when the couple traveled to Baltimore from their home in Chantilly, Va., to attend an Orioles baseball game Saturday afternoon. Kelley said they got lost coming into Baltimore.

After the game, the couple said they got lost again after they left a Lee Street parking lot and tried to return to Interstate 95 and instead ended up in Cherry Hill, where they were stopped by police. The officers involved in the incident are part of the Police Department's housing section, which patrols the city's public housing complexes.

Kelley said he remembers seeing a sign for Interstate 95 North but that he did not get on the highway and continued to look for signs for I-95 South.

Kelley denied that he and his girlfriend were looking to buy drugs in Cherry Hill, a neighborhood that has often struggled with the illegal drug trade.

"I was honestly lost and not there to buy drugs," Kelley said. "I didn't even know Cherry Hill before I got arrested."

Kelley, who lives with Brook at his parents' house in Chantilly, has a prior misdemeanor conviction for embezzlement stemming from a 2003 incident, according to Virginia criminal court records. He said he presented a receipt for an item he had not purchased to a cashier at a Home Depot in exchange for less than $200 in cash. {NS note: Well at least we know he is honest. }

Paul M. Blair Jr., the city Fraternal Order of Police union president, said he could not understand how the couple got lost leaving Camden Yards and ended up in the heart of Cherry Hill.

"The only version we're hearing is the spin being put out by the couple in the press," Blair said. "Of course, if it's an official investigation, the officers can't tell their version until the investigation is over. There's always two versions of any story."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...ocal-headlines


And from the follow-up by the same TV station as the original:

The 11 News I-Team obtained Preston's police report, which offers a much different version of the incident.
"The driver, Mr. Kelley, became argumentative and began attempting to tear the citation out of the book ... and I had to take it out of his hands."

Kelley responded, telling the I-Team, "I wasn't refusing to sign anything; I didn't say I'm not going to sign this."{NS note: But in the other story, he was quoted as saying "'Before I sign this, can you please give us directions back to the highway?'" So he didn't exactly just sign it either.}

The police incident report does not mention anything about asking for directions. After issuing the traffic citation, the report indicates Preston advised the couple to leave the area.

"She said, you know, 'Get out of here,' and so all I could think of was pull forward. I pulled forward about 40 feet or so, pulled the car to the side of the road, and put on my flashers, and (Brook) was in the midst of calling her dad," Kelley said.

The couple saw another officer and asked him for directions, but Preston intervened.

"That really threw us for a loop when she stepped in between our cars and said, 'My partner is not going to step in front of me and tell you directions, if I'm not,'" Kelley said.

The police report of the circumstances indicates Preston told the couple she would arrest them for trespassing -- on a public street lined with public housing units.

"Ms. Brook then became hostile stating ... 'I don't want to talk to you.' I then advised them to leave or they would be arrested for trespassing."

"She leaned into the car after she had Josh out of the car and cuffed and told me, 'Ma'am, now you get the hell out of here,'" Brook said. "I mean, by this time, I'm completely in tears. I said, 'Ma'am, you know, we just need your help. We are not trying to cause you any trouble. I'm not leaving him.'"

Collins reported Preston again offered a different set of facts. Her police report, in part, follows:

"I then instructed Ms. Brook to take the vehicle and leave the area. Ms. Brook stated no."

Preston described Brook as "uncooperative, refusing to give her name or address ... she was arrested and transported to Central Booking as a Jane Doe." {NS note: Ok, THAT is a BIG factor. If a person refuses to identify themselves and have to be booked as a Jonhn/Jane Doe, they will be held until the police can establish their identity. That will cause a BIG delay in their release and it was something totally left out of the original story.}

Both Kelley's and Brook's parents are police officers in the Harrisburg, Pa., area.

"They are very respectful, and that's how I grew up, to learn how to respect and learn that officers respect you," Brook said.

City police internal affairs continues to investigate the incident and Preston remains on active duty.

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/11inve...02/detail.html



Ok, should they have been arrested? Personally I'd say probably not.

However, the report tells a much different story. Before any of you give the "of course the cops lied" response, can you tell me that the couple had no reason to shade their story? Hell, one of them has a conviction for his dishonesty.

And the John/Jane Doe part is a BIG factor in how long Brook had to be held.


Always two sides..........maybe we should try to look at both of them. BOTH stories from WBAL were posted in 5/17............BOTH were available before this thread was started. But the poster chose to post only the one-sided story.

dedbr

If they were in the wrong, why were they released with out any charges being filed? It seems to me that they would of been charged if they had actually done something bad enough to be hauled in, right?


Somewhere in Ded Land.....

LibertyLover

I posted that because it was the first, one, and only article I had seen at that time and thought it would be worth sharing. The real story is of course more complicated, but what it would appear to me is that a couple of non-violent citizens wishing to pursue happiness by altering their state of conciousness attempted to exchange their property in the form of money for property in the form of drugs, and while attempting to do so got arrested for being white in a black neighborhood. I might be wrong, they might have been black in a white neighborhood, or black in a black neighborhood, or white in a white neighborhood, but most likely they were of the wrong race in the wrong place seeking to do the wrong thing... "wrong" being determined solely by the government in an arbitary oppressive manner without due process of law.

I could well be wrong about all that, but that would be my guess without knowing what really happened.

Murdock

<snip>

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/11inve...02/detail.html

THC Fiend

I think that police should charge this Collins guy, he's creepy. Was he following them around the whole day or what.



j/k

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THC Fiend

In reality, it is a shitty way. But it's also a more pragmatic way than what you're suggesting. Courts are tied up as it is, and being an officer, you know all about that. You also know the costs involved in courts, and if they tried every person whom they had even the slightest bit of evidence against, then the time and money wasted would be incredible.

Also, the prosecutors, for the most part, WILL proceed to trial not if they think they'll win, but if they have enough evidence that they have a CHANCE of winning. They only won't proceed if they, for the most part, know they don't have adequate evidence.

I really don't think that it has anything to do with a win/loss ratio, although I'm studying in a different country . Also, we have two screens here, firstly, the crown won't charge if they don't think they have sufficient evidence, and secondly the accused can opt to have a preliminary hearing (i think that's what it's called) where a judge then decides if there is sufficient evidence to continue. Therefore, there are twice as many guilty people who get off without a trial.