MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A state appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of a Black woman whose arrest at a Waffle House restaurant sparked complaints about police mistreatment nearly three years ago.
Chikesia Eugenea Clemons, who was convicted of resisting arrest and sentenced to one year of probation following an incident in Mobile County that was captured on video, failed to prove that an indictment should have been dismissed, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruled.
The court, in a decision by Judge Chris McCool, also dismissed Clemons’ claim that a judge should have found her innocent before jurors were allowed to deliberate.
Police in Saraland, Alabama, said Clemons was drunk and disorderly when they arrested her April 22, 2018. She and a friend cursed employees and threatened to return with guns, prompting workers to call police, authorities said.
Activists, including NAACP members, criticized police as racist and too aggressive after cellphone video of the confrontation was posted on social media. The video began with one of the officers standing over Clemons and trying to place her right arm behind her back as she sat in a chair.
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