A Sunflower woman's recent encounter with law enforcement officials in that town has left her feeling unhappy and violated.
Shekeita George says she was handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol unit, brought to the Sunflower County jail, and booked in on disorderly conduct and public drunkenness charges for simply sitting in the back of a friend's car and questioning why the officers stopped them for driving too slowly.
She spent a few hours in jail, but said she never saw a judge, was never issued a fine or given a court date or any information pertaining to a court appearance, yet someone who had a court appearance on the Monday following the incident told her that the judge had issued a contempt of court citation against her. And later, someone else told her that the judge had issued a bench warrant for her arrest because she didn’t show for court.
She then called the Sunflower city hall and reportedly asked a clerk what she should do about the bench warrant and was told that the clerk asked an officer and the officer responded that she should come pay the fine, at which she replied that she was not because an assessment was never given to her as she never saw a judge. “I replied again, ask them do they want me to come and turn myself in because I don’t feel like hiding and dodging from them every time I leave, go outside my house.”
George said when the clerk returned to the phone she had a different reply. “When she got back on the phone she said they said wait the 10 days until the judge sign off on the bench warrant. I said, but I thought y’all already had a bench warrant for my arrest.” George said she hung up after that.
She has purportedly spoken with Sheriff James Haywood, Mayor Desiree Norwood and Chief Bobby Walker about the way she was treated by his officers and her situation. She said she is speaking out because she doesn’t want what happened to her to happen to anyone else.
According to George's account, on January 3 at around 11 a.m., she and a friend, Tamesha James, were riding in James' vehicle on her street only a few feet from her home when two officers, Assistant Chief Patrick Mitchell and Officer Howard of the Sunflower Police Department pulled up. "They did not see me sitting in the car because I was in the back seat and no one was on the passenger side and Tamesha James was the only one driving." George said.
She said Howard was the first to get out of the vehicle although both cars pulled up at nearly the same time. Howard then reportedly instructed James to get out of the car. "He said ‘didn't chief tell you about driving that (expletive) car that (expletive) slow?’" George said.
She said James only smiled and asked if he was serious. At that point, George stated that she said, “Really?” from the back seat and that's when Howard looked down and saw her. “After I replied ‘really,’ Officer Howard looked down, said ‘shut the (expletive) up’ so I said ‘you shut the (expletive) up.’"
George said it was about that time that Mitchell pulled in front of the car they were in, essentially blocking it off because Howard's patrol unit was parked behind their car. According to George, Mitchell approached the vehicle and he too, not realizing that she was in the back, asked James if he had told her about driving her car so slowly.
George said that's when Mitchell also told James to step in front of the car and sensing that he was going to arrest James, George said she questioned, “Are y'all serious?” She said that's when Mitchell knew she was in the vehicle and instructed her to shut up and called her an expletive term that begins with a “B” and insisted that she be quiet.
George said she returned the verbalism using the same terminology that Mitchell used towards her and added, “This my right, I got freedom to say whatever I want to say.” George said Mitchell then turned to his fellow officer and using more expletives told him to lock her up if she said anything else.
George said it was at that point that she used some expletives toward the men.
According to George, that’s when Howard approached her side of the car and opened the door. She reportedly extended her hands and he handcuffed her.
She was then placed in the back of Howard’s police unit. "Once I got in the back of the car, Officer Mitchell stayed in the front of a car talking to Tamesha James and Officer Howard had me in the back seat of the car.”
She said that while she and Howard were sitting in the police car he kept saying, “You're going to learn to shut the (expletive) up," she said. George said the two of them continued to argue back and forth until Mitchell came over to the car and tried to talk to her.
The young woman said she was in such a state of mind that she did not feel like talking. She alleges that, “I told him that I don’t really want to hear nothing that he got to say, you put these handcuffs on me and you put me in the back of the car, just go’on take me to jail.” And that's what Howard did.
She claims that while en route to the jail Howard was on the phone with Mitchell, but she does not know what was said. George said during her ride she made remarks about the senselessness of the officers' actions. “I said y'all some dirty police,” she said, “I told Officer Howard, you just became a police here and you come acting just like Bobby and Mitch.”
George said Howard continued to call her by a name other than her own, made other remarks and insisted that she shut up. "He let the window down, he lit his Black & Mild and I said ‘are you really going to smoke this Black and Mild and you got a person in the back of the car?" George said the officer then turned the music up loud and continued the drive to the county jail.
Upon arrival at the jail, George said the officer attempted to book her, but she did not cooperate and when he asked for her name, “I said write the same name down that you call me the whole time that you were bringing me over here," she said.
George said after Howard left and she was taken to the back for processing she asked one of the female guards if she could call Haywood before she disrobed and she was allowed to do so. "And I told him what was going on and I said Mr. Haywood, I didn't mean to come in here and disrespect your jail and not go by your bylaws, but what they doing in Sunflower is wrong."
George said she went on to explain that she was being charged with public drunkenness when she was simply sitting in the back of her friend's car. George alleges that she did not have any alcohol in her hand and there was none in the back of the car when they were stopped.
She said, “He really didn't even look in the car to see what, (if) it was any alcohol anywhere.” George said she also mentioned the disorderly conduct charge to Haywood. “I only said 'really?' and 'Are y'all serious' because I didn't understand what was happening in front of me and they started being disrespectful towards me, so I started back being disrespectful to them.”
George alleges that she explained to Haywood that she understood it was fitting to be respectful toward law enforcement officials. “But when the law is just literally being disrespectful and a (expletive) in front of you, what could you do? What could anybody do when the law, somebody that is supposed to protect and serve and help you, hurting you?”
She said Haywood instructed her to stay there for eight hours and he would let her go. She said he released her at 8 a.m., Saturday morning. "I never seen a judge to be arraigned, when they let me go they just let me go. They gave me a copy of my booking report. I didn't sign nothing,” she said.
George said after expressing to Haywood how wrongly she had been treated he told her he would consult with the judge on January 6. George claimed that she also spoke with Norwood about the situation and she instructed her to speak with Walker. She indicated that her conversation with Walker did not yield the desired results.
She said she explained her dilemma to Walker. “But his word to me was, 'did the officer say anything to you first?' I said no sir,” George said. She added that Walker then asked her why did she speak up. He then reportedly told her, “If he wasn’t talking to you, you shouldn’t have said nothing at all.” George said she attempted to explain that she wasn't being disrespectful only to have Walker declare that she should have kept quiet.
And her encounter with Norwood, which included an appeal for intervention and for the mayor to accompany her when she talked to Walker while Mitchell was in the building, also proved futile. “As long as they're collecting them dollars, she (Norwood) don’t really care about that,” George said.
She asserted that Mitchell made a statement to her as she exited Walker's office. “He said, 'I better not catch you driving,” she said.
George said two people who were in court at the time told her about the contempt charge and the warrant and a clerk at the city hall confirmed that she had charges filed against her. However, Walker told the E-T that all of the charges against George were dropped and the officer never went forward with them. George verified that he had shared that same information with her as well.
The E-T also requested a copy of that incident report, but it was not made available. Also of note is that George has had at least two additional run-ins with the Sunflower police since the January 3 incident with the most recent occurrence being an arrest on Sunday after she was stopped on a traffic violation for allegedly running a stop sign and no driver’s license.
According to George, “The judge OR’d me, but the officer that stopped me, he wasn’t going to take me to jail, he just gave me the ticket for no driver’s license, but when he called Mitchell and told Mitchell who I was, I heard Mitchell on the phone say take her (expletive) to jail,” she said.
