Metro News Release

For immediate release: September 29, 2004

Metro shares full story of woman arrested for disorderly conduct

The following are the details of a September 9th incident involving the arrest of a woman for disorderly conduct at the Wheaton Metrorail station. " This was a very unfortunate incident and no one is happy that it occurred," said Metro Board Chairman Robert Smith. " But the woman’s conduct forced the officer to take the actions that he did. In a situation such as this, the last thing we wanted to do was take someone into custody."

The incident began after a police officer observed the woman yelling obscenities into her cell phone at the Wheaton Metrorail station. He saw that her behavior was causing other customers to walk away from the immediate area. He approached her and asked her to please lower her voice and stop yelling obscenities. The woman instead turned her anger toward the police officer, cursing loudly at him (" You can" t tell me what the f**k I can do!" ) and continuing to disturb other Metro customers. The officer tried several times to calm the woman down and asked that she maintain her composure and stop cursing or leave Metro property. Instead the woman continued to hurl obscenities toward the officer (" F**k you!" ).

As a result of the woman’s choice not to comply with the officer’s simple request, the officer advised the woman that she was under arrest and attempted to take hold of her arm in preparation of handcuffing her. She resisted and pulled away several times. To avoid a prolonged struggle, the officer took the woman’s arm and placed her on the ground. Once on the ground the customer became cooperative and the two agreed that if she would be handcuffed peacefully then she would be allowed off the ground.

Had the woman complied with the officer’s first request to lower her voice, no police action would have been necessary.

The woman has admitted to the media that she indeed refused to comply with the officer’s request, cursed, was loud, and attempted to fight the officer’s attempt to arrest her.

After being taken into custody, the woman was processed and appeared before a Maryland District Court Commissioner for Montgomery County, MD, in Silver Spring. The commissioner examined the facts of the case and found that probable cause did exist to sustain the charges of both disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. A court date has been set for October.

The woman contacted media to complain about the incident but has yet to contact or file a complaint with Metro Transit Police.

News release issued on September 29, 2004.