edited: Tasering at Club Nationals Afterparty

I don't feel sorry for the sexual predators that they throw on the front lawn on MSNBC "To catch a predator" and I don't feel sorry for these ass clowns. To be in a women's public bathroom is a "sex crime" and I feel that these kind of freeks shouldn't be given any breaks. Second offense should be to cut off a nut. Any guy that thinks that being in a women's public restroom (for any reason) is acceptable, has issues.

Another Witness: Please contact the above poster haywoodjb@hotmail.com if you haven't already. This has gotten exponentially more serious. This is a real person, suffering real consequences. Everyone who saw anything at all that night is needed.

First, please set up some sort of new email address for this. Although I would like to be in the courtroom when you say "These are the witness statements that we received at email address Heywoodjablowme@hotmail.com.Second, after posting to contact this Mr jablowme 9 or 18 times I think we get the picture.Third, for the person that said this is a sex crime, are you serious?!?!

A friend wrote:

Another Witness: Please contact the above poster

haywoodjb@hotmail.com

if you haven't already. This has gotten exponentially more serious. This is a real person, suffering real consequences. Everyone who saw anything at all that night is needed.

Well like someone else said earlier.... The person in jail that is in a lot of trouble was NOT in the bathroom.

If only Mike would have known that speaking out against the aggressive cop might have ruined his life. It's going to haunt him for a long time unless some witnesses speak up and defend him. Please email

haywoodjb@hotmail.com

. It's a friend of Mike who is trying to help him out.

Gentlemen:

Please put aside the rhetoric and bravado concerning the events that took place at King's Island on Saturday evening. The life and future of a very fine young man are at stake.

I have known Mike for six years - at a time my husband was battling cancer and ultimately lost that fight five and a half years ago. I have two sons who, at the time were 14 and 16. Mike was there to help and support them through a horrible time - he became their "big brother" and role model. My youngest son, who is now 19, has turned out to be a great runner - about to run at the Varsity level for a Division 1 school. My oldest son is not the athelete his brother is but an incredibly great academic who is a senior now at Georgia Tech - and so Mike has had influence on both through being a passionate runner and a Georgia Tech graduate. I could not wish for my sons to have a finer friend, big brother and role model.

It is obvious from all the statements that things quickly got out of control on Saturday evening and escalated beyond where they should have gone and, in many respects, Mike ended up being the fall guy. The charges that have been brought against him are totally over the top from the events of the evening - charges which could ruin the rest of this young man's life - assault against a police officer and resisting arrest are not being taken lightly by the judicial system. The impact on his career and personal life if he is found guilty are profound. His parents are retired - his mother not in the best of health. The financial and emotional burden on the fine people is extraordinary.

We are not looking to sue anyone - we are looking for fair justice and for reason to prevail. Mike has been incarcerated since Saturday and was arraigned this morning on $35,000 bond. This is not funny but a very serious situation. I urge you if you witnessed what happened and can speak to the fact that Mike did not assault anyone or resist arrest - to set forth what you saw. We need your name and contact information (phone). Would you not want someone to do this for you if you found yourself in a similar situation. I know I would.

I thank you for your help in advance

Indra Turnbull

indra@rbosolutions.com

770-631-6761

Makes one wonder what the situations were like surrounding the Bengals and their rediculous arrest count.

I'm not implying that they (Bengals) weren't probably validly arrested, but if it's like this in Cincy for going into a women's restroom, I'd be leaving that city in a hurry.

Good post, Inda. Like the other poster said, did friends of Mike REALLY expect us to respond with any sort of seriousness to an email address which reads "heywoodjb@hotmail.com"????? I would think that such immaturity as this address implies would NOT be the quality you'd want to emphasize in this case. Do your friend a favor and grow up! Would you apply for a job using this email address? Well then don't try to help save this young man's future by handling potential witnesses -- or ANY part of this legal process -- in an immature manner either. Duh!

Curious about Bengals wrote:

if it's like this in Cincy for going into a women's restroom, I'd be leaving that city in a hurry.

Not without posting $35,000 bond you wouldn't.

Does anyone think that this will change the attitude of these post National parties?

no, i think it'll change where we as usatf award clubs and other potential championship sites. as a ldr member, I and others are of the mindset that ohio will never host an official usatf event again. shame because of all events, clubs is probably the greatest moneymaker for these towns.

I could NOT disagree more wrote:

I don't feel sorry for the sexual predators that they throw on the front lawn on MSNBC "To catch a predator" and I don't feel sorry for these ass clowns. To be in a women's public bathroom is a "sex crime" and I feel that these kind of freeks shouldn't be given any breaks. Second offense should be to cut off a nut. Any guy that thinks that being in a women's public restroom (for any reason) is acceptable, has issues.

God I hope you are a troll because if you are not, you are a scary individual. And by scary I mean having absolutely no concept of reality.

I think that there is a different crowd at a National Meet (at any level) than there is at Club Nationals. You don't have to qualify to be there and therefore you get a lot of people that had heard about all of the National's parties that they were never good enough to go to. So they decide that they are going to turn this all comers meet into that type of deal and it has backfired in a big way. I decided as a 25 year old in Rochester New York after the horrible behavior from "the Janes" that I had already matured to the point of no longer being interested in these parties. My only surprise is that something like this hasn't happened earlier. Clubs after party should be a family affair that you would feel comfortable bringing your kids to and exposing them to a great people in a great sport. That is no longer the case and it is sad. Maybe an awful situation like this can return things to how they once were.

well there ya go wrote:

and this all could have been avoided if you just wouldn't have broke the law in the first place idiots.

This is the definition of red herring, regardless of whether or not anyone even broke the law (which is questionable). Stop talking about it.

FWIW, if you go back to the way it used to be, the after party was no more suitable for family entertainment in the 80's and 90's with various "heroes" doing dumb things or being doing a lot of "grinding" on and off the dance floor. I enjoy having a nice evening of dancing and talking with my friends, many of whom I haven't seen for months or sometimes years after the meet, and generally don't drink, so that I don't end up doing something dumb.

As far as only the slower runners doing dumb or offensive things, as several have mentioned, the individual champions and the team champions have participated in actions that offended some at various meets as well.

As far as the email address, I did a Google search, and it belongs to the team manager for ATC, and it appears that they have been using it for years.

I do feel for the guy, he wasn't in the bathroom, he saw a friend getting bashed into things and he asked what's up, beyond that I really don't know if he got too close or touched the officer. We can assume that the officer felt threatened, if the guy gets convicted of a felony, it really will impact his life in a negative manner.

A similar situation that more of you may be able to relate to, would be in criminal activity that pretty much everyone one of us commit on a daily basis, speeding.

Imagine you're in a car with your friend, you get pulled over for doing 35mph in a 30mph zone. Your friend is asked to step out of the car, so he does and he puts his hands on top of his head. The officer grabs his arm and twists it and then starts banging your friends head against the side of the car. You'd probably think that the level of roughness was not appropriate to the crime and you'd say something. Odds are that while you weren't originally a criminal since you weren't driving, that you'd tell the officer to stop and if you argued enough or if you got out of the car, you could be charged with either interference if you were lucky or an assault if you weren't. This really isn't all that different, the guy charged wasn't in the bathroom, he was in the hallway with other friends and saw the guy from the bathroom pleading that he wasn't resisting and the officer slaming the bathroom guys head into things, so he started by asking why the officer was assaulting his friend and he probably got too close. Now he's on his way to a felony conviction, which due to the life time impact, is more than "learning a lesson". If I had been in that situation, I would have also asked the same type of question. As someone who was stopped earlier by one of the cops, I can honestly say, that at least one of them was in a really pushy mood and not likely being honest. He explained that if you'd had any beer at all in the previous day, that he could charge you with public intoxication (I hadn't drank any alcohol since dinner the prior evening). He also stated that he could arrest me for carrying a bag with beer in it across the parking lot (again, that didn't make sense, as that would mean you couldn't carry beer to your room from your car). He was verbally confrontational with a team manager of another team that simply asked what was going on (fortunately for her, she moved away and then stood still and shut up) He also said that bringing in outside beer to the private party, which he called a bar would jeopardize the liquor license of the hotel ( that sounded true), I volunteered to either dump the beer or take it back to my room. In the end he finished the arrest by releasing me with a verbal warning to not do anyting wrong that evening and let me take the beer back to my room where I left it. That officers behavior wasn't really conducive to good crowd control, a few other officers seemed a lot more conversational and people did as they were told. What would you do if a friend of yours was being assaulted? Would you ask the person to stop? Would you plead and be physically close, hoping the assaulter would feel pressured to stop? In this case the initial assaulter of the guy he escorted out of the bathroom was the cop, while the guy that was tased and arrested was a bystander that at least started out by asking what was going on. As we saw that evening, a lot of cops were good people, some weren't.

Phaedrus wrote:

This is the definition of red herring, regardless of whether or not anyone even broke the law (which is questionable). Stop talking about it.

It pretains to the situation and is relevant information as to why the whole thing started. It's not distracting anyone but the people who are screaming for injustice and how to save their friends life. Well a good way to have done so would have been to not enter a women's bathroom and they should have considered that prior to the current situation. This would have saved everyone else a great deal of time.

However, the true "guilty" party, the guys that went into the women's bathroom seem to be taking 0 responsibility for their own actions. Instead they like to blame the cops for getting out of hand (which may or may not have happened).

MAN UP. You broke the law, something went down and your buddy got arrested for defending you. I'm sick of the guys that were in the bathroom pretending that the reason their friend is in jail is because of the cops and not taking any of the blame.

Were you even there? This party was not out of control! I was surprised to see how subdued the crowd was! I sure didn't even consider it a party. It was a social gathering with some drinks and a DJ with a few people dancing. If we are going to call this a "party," it was one hell of a lame ass party! I didn't see anyone who was drunkenly out of control, no one that I encountered was obnoxiously intoxicated, and the individuals involved in the police incident did not appear to be drunk to me at all. No I wasn't following them around counting their beers, but from my and many other people's viewpoints, alcohol played little if any role in this encounter.

A few people brought in outside beers and a couple guys went into a women's restroom and left when they were asked and were not arrested. The reaction to this incident has been so indignant because the events of the night were so completely innocuous. Again, I know there are two sides to every story, but I cannot possibly imagine how this is anything other than extreme police abuse that could result in a lot of needless trouble for one guy who very unnaggressively asked what was on everyone else's mind.

Nationals vs. Clubs wrote:

I decided as a 25 year old in Rochester New York after the horrible behavior from "the Janes" that I had already matured to the point of no longer being interested in these parties.

What 'horrible behavior from "the Janes"' are you referring to?

You just don't get it do you? First, how is someone "manning up" going to change any of this? Do you think if the guy goes to the cops and says, I was in the girls' bathroom, they cops will drop all the unrelated charges on the other guy? That makes zero sense.

Second, stop saying that just becuase the law was broken by X that Y deserves to be tazed and charged - there is no correlation.

Third, the punishment is meant to fit the crime. Even if there was a correlation between the guy in a girl's bathroom and the guy getting tazed, we don't generally tazer people that are doing harmless things like being in a girls' bathroom. By your logic, when you break the law by getting a parking ticket, the police then have the right to beat the shit out of your friend. Then when you complain, we will all say, well dont blame the cops, you broke the law, it is your own fault.

From the way it sounds, I hope this guy doesn't get tagged with a felony. Misdemeanor tops. I hope the punishment fits the crime. And hopefully the guys in the bathroom who instigated this incident man up and come to court as witnesses.

However, I'm guessing this guy did more than just politely ask the cop to stop. He probably said "what are you doing" in a wtf-type tone and moved toward the cop. I don't think it is too unreasonable for the cop to use a taser in the situation (lots of people, alcohol, potential for riot/group violence against cop). It is his job to bring order to the situation by asserting his authority (which he legally has). Sounds like he was going by the manual.

As for the guy, I'd imagine with a decent lawyer and a couple witnesses he'll get off all the charges. But he will have learned a good lesson.

Everyone take note here:

NEVER challenge a police officer. It is ALWAYS in your best interest to cooperate with the police. "Yes sir", "no sir" are the only things you should say if an officer thinks you were up to something. Don't give lip, if you're a bystander or otherwise, always show your hands, move slowly, and follow officer commands.

No matter how unfair you think the police stopping you/arresting you/you friend/whatever, remember, this is America and you will ALWAYS have your day in court. Argue all you want in court and you'll probably win--what's more likely is that if you cooperate you'll never be in court in the first place.

Remember the police have a tough job, and have to assume that every person they deal with is packing heat and wants to kill them. I don't blame them for assuming this. They aren't singling you out and this isn't a "police state". They are just doing they job (and my opinion is that their job is a very important and essential one).

It sounds like this Mike guy made a poor decision. Being a good father or whatever doesn't excuse him fom the law just as being Michael Vick (rich NFL player) doesn't excuse him from a 23 month sentence. EVERYBODY has to play by the rules.

I hope this has a happy ending.

It's been proven that there is a correlation between this guys friends being in the ladies room and him getting tazered. Is this true for all situations? no just as it's not true for everyone who gets pulled over and their friend gets beat up.

If I got pulled over for speeding, and my friend started mouthing off to the cop and walking at him...then the cop felt threatened by him...I'd think my friend was an idiot.