Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed The Ohio Star Managing Editor Jack Windsor to the newsmakers line.
During the third hour, Windsor discussed his breaking story about a Marietta mother who was tased while watching her son’s football game in Logan-Hocking, Ohio. He later disclosed that after the story went national it gained the attention of Sandmann versus CNN famed attorney Lin Wood who directed the mother to legal council in Ohio.
Leahy: On the line right now is the man The New York Times fears and Governor Mike DeWine the big RINO up there in Ohio also runs away from. Managing editor of our own The Ohio Star Jack Windsor. Good morning, Jack.
Windsor: Mike. Good morning. Good morning Crom. It’s good to talk with you both today.
Leahy: You are the guy who breaks news left and right, and in this particular case you were here last week and then that evening you broke this massive story. And I’d like you to bring us up to date on this. This is an Ohio football mom tased and arrested for not wearing a mask at a game. Tell us about the story and tell us where we are on that story a week later.
Windsor: So Alicia Kitts lives in Marietta and she drove to Logan, Ohio, which is about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. And when she arrived at the stadium she went in and paid for her ticket. And on her way, and she was told she needed to mask. And she said no I have an exemption.
I have asthma. And apparently, the lady who took her money said, okay, well, I’m just required to tell you that. So the mom goes into the stadium and sits and watches the football game. It’s her son’s 7th-grade football game.
And at one point a school resource officer approaches her and says look, you’re going to have to put that mask on she said no, I have an exemption. I don’t need to put the mask on. And the officer proceeds to say if you don’t put the mask on then I’m going to arrest you. I’ll take you out of here because you’re trespassing.
And she said well who wants me to put it on? He said well the school, the administrator, the officials want you to put it on, your table. She said well send him over here and I’ll talk to him. And he said nah, I’m going to go ahead and arrest you.
And so he tases her because she refused. She wasn’t kicking and screaming but she said no, I’m not going to go and you’re not going to arrest me. He ends up tasting her and handcuffing her and escorting her out of the stadium. Now the controversial part of it is this is Ohio has a statewide mask mandate. And in that mandate, there are exemptions for medical purposes including asthma.
There are also exemptions for people who are outside seated or more than six feet away from people who are not in their family. In this instance, she was much further than six feet away from other people and she does have a medical condition. So this story made a splash immediately.
It showed up on Breitbart News, The Blaze, HuffPost, Tucker Carlson, and Ben Shapiro picked it up. And Nick Sandmann’s attorney Lin Wood, some of us remember him and Nick Sandmann’s struggle with CNN and his massive settlement. He picked it up and made some commentary on it. So this thing made national and international headlines last week.
Leahy: And you broke the story, Jack. Congratulations. Good work.
Windsor: Thank you. Thank you
Carmichael: Now is Nick Sandmann’s attorney Lin Wood now representing this lady?
Windsor: So actually there is an Ohio attorney. His name is Maurice Thompson. Maurice is with The 1851 Legal Center. He is taking the lead in representing this mom. Her name is Alicia Kitts. I do not know if Lin Wood is involved at all or if he’s co-counsel. But I do know that she’s in great hands with Maurice Thompson. He has battled the state at least I want to say three or four times during this pandemic and one each of those cases.
Carmichael: So who is she who will she be suing?
Windsor: I don’t have clarity yet. Her day in court is October 7. My understanding is if they proceed with the charges, there’s a strong likelihood they may drop the charges. And then it looks like it would probably be the police department, school or you know school district. And then the state of Ohio. But we’ll learn more on October 7.
Leahy: Now did you reach out to them? I guess it’s a Logan Ohio Police Department, Did you reach out to them for comment? Did they offer any explanation for the conduct of their officer?
Windsor: So they did. When I originally reached out I asked an explicit question. What written law or rule did she break? And the officer there officer Captain Gabriel said to contact Logan-Hocking School District board office. The school district board office, it was school policy and I said, okay wait a minute.
So she was arrested for violating school policy and he said no the school policy states that spectators must wear masks while in the stadium. and because she refused then she was subsequently arrested on the charge of criminal trespass.
And in that police report, which we were able to obtain the arresting officer said in his narrative, I asked the female to put on her mask. She told me she was not going to put on a mask because she had asthma. I advised her she did not put her mask on she would have to leave the stadium.
She then asked me what she was supposed to do with her children because she was watching her son play football. I advised her that if she did not leave the stadium then she would be arrested. So even his narrative is not it’s not too encouraging for him.
It sounds like she’s asking questions and he’s coming down heavy-handed on her. She’s not in violation of the statewide mask order. And there is a sports order and in that sports order that the state released, it indicates that hey there are exemptions in this statewide mask order and they apply in the sports order. And she had two of them.
Leahy: It sounds like she may have a pretty good case against the city there.
Windsor: You know, it really does. A lot of people are divided and really based on their you know, their political striping I guess. But she does have a very strong case. She was violently removed from the stadium and it’s a shame. I honestly feel bad for the school district and the resource officer.
I understand the school district. They want their kids to be able to play sports. So they’re trying to do everything that they can because look Governor DeWine has sent around snitches. There are people that are out watching these games and you know, they’re going to report back to the governor and in other powers that be.
So they’re in a tough spot. The school districts want to do it, right? The resource officer is really, you know, it’s like they release the Kraken. Go get her and so he does what he’s told to do. He just did it violently and he did it in a way that it just does not look good for him.
Carmichael: Yeah, and it’s very it mean it’s you know when you look at that if we’re down kind of in the weeds where we’re trying to where the government is trying to give authorities and the power of the authority to remove people from watching a football game. I mean when you get right down to house how scary that is.
It’s a little bit like out in Idaho there was that church service that was being held out in a parking lot and people were singing. And I guess the minister or somebody the authorities showed up and arrested that person. And there’s not been a single hospitalization in that county.
Not one hospitalization in the county and yet the police show up. And the police even told the guy and said I’m doing this because the mayor is forcing me to do it. I’m not doing it because even the policeman said I don’t think this is the right thing.
Windsor: I agree with that.
Carmichael: And when you have people in authority who abuse their authority and that’s abuse there’s you know. There’s a fine line. And once you step over it and you and I guess he’s these politicians they get high on on on exercising their authority in ways that really really hurts people for no good reason.
Windsor: We can’t have state Representative D.J. Swearingen who’s a Republican out of here on Ohio. He said we can’t have public policy that ends with someone getting arrested just for sitting with the family outside watching their child play football.
And he was quick to point out that the legislature amended Senate Bill 55 for that type of situation and that bill would have taken away the criminal element for minor health violations and it would have lowered the fines if somebody was in violation.
And the governor after the General Assembly both, you know, both chambers past it the governor vetoed that bill. And so, you know early on in his handling of COVID the governor said, hey the buck stops with me. Well does it is? Is this what you want?
Leahy: Good point Jack now, let me ask you. I’m gathering that in the week since you broke this major national story you’ve been a very popular guest on a lot of national and Ohio radio and television programs. What is your sense of how the people of Ohio are responding to this?
Windsor: Yeah, so it’s really like I said before it’s divided by a political stripe. There are people who say my gosh. Okay, this woman’s watching her son and this is out of control. It’s very unnerving when you watch the video. It does compel you emotionally one way or the other.
Either because she gets to tased and it’s ugly. It’s not fun to watch. So there are a lot of people who are extremely upset. One that we are in a state where rules and regulations have brought us to this point. There are other people who say it’s just a darn mask. Put the mask on.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Photo “Alecia Kitts Being Arrested” by The Timmyz.
