A woman was charged with misdemeanor child abuse, resisting a public officer and public intoxication after allowing her 11-year-old son to drive a golf cart while on vacation at Bald Head Island, N.C. At Sunset Valley Golf Course in Pompton Plains, N.J., a man was charged with beating a goose to death with a golf club.
A woman vacationing with her family at Bald Head Island, N.C., was jailed and charged with child abuse for allowing her 11-year-old son to drive a golf cart to their rented cottage, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported.
Over the four hours following the incident, Julie Mall, 43, said she was pinned to the ground by police, repeatedly accused of being drunk, frogmarched barefoot aboard a ferry in handcuffs, and jailed in leg irons and charged, the Observer reported.
There are two versions of what happened, one told by Mall and her companions that night and one by the authorities. Bald Head officials would not discuss the details of the encounter beyond what is in the official report. Bald Head Village has about 25 officers in its Public Safety Department. With a year-round population of 168, the municipality has a ratio of one officer for every seven residents. By comparison, Charlotte’s ratio is about one for every 438 residents, the Observer reported.
Mall said there is no question she was wrong—drivers must be 16 and have a valid drivers’ license to drive a golf cart on Bald Head Island. What troubled her, Mall said, was what she describes as hostile, aggressive treatment by police, the Observer reported.
Mall said they were nearly back to their cottage the evening of July 26, 2015, when a police golf cart with flashing lights pulled them over on Muscadine Wynd, one of the many paved paths on the island. An officer came up to the cart that was carrying her, her husband, Scott Mall, 45, their 11-year-old son Josh and 9-year-old daughter Erin, her niece Stephanie Phelps, 22, and Rocket, their Golden Retriever, the Observer reported.
“Immediately he started berating us,” she says. “He was saying ‘How old is this kid?’ ‘Are you guys drunk?’ ‘I could write you up for child abuse.’ ”
Mall said she had no more than a single glass of wine with dinner hours earlier, and no one was intoxicated. As the officer’s tirade continued, she said, her son burst into tears. She asked her niece to take the children back to the cottage, the Observer reported.
After the sobbing children left, Mall told the officer she was angry that he had upset them unnecessarily. “I said, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself,’ and I stuck my finger in his face.” She said the officer didn’t have a citation book with him, so he radioed for someone to bring him one. A second police vehicle arrived, and later a third, the Observer reported.
Four or five officers were conferring there when she asked her husband to drive their golf cart back to the cottage to get mosquito repellent, leaving her alone in the dark with the police. Mall says she was standing on the median of the path tapping away on her cell phone when the officer came over and told her she was blocking traffic and she needed to return to her golf cart, which no longer was there. Mall said she was standing off the roadway at the time and the police vehicles had the road blocked, the Observer reported.
“He said, ‘You need to go back to your golf cart or I’m going to cuff you,’ ” she says. “He lunged across at me, twisting my arm behind my back. I’m hysterical. I’ve never been that scared of anything in my life.”
James Hunter was the arresting officer. Hunter, who joined the force in August 2014, declined to discuss the incident, referring all questions about the encounter to the village attorney, the Observer reported.
According to the official report, he pulled over the golf cart about 8:45 p.m. when he saw an underage driver. He said in his report he approached the cart, identified himself and began talking to the Malls, the Observer reported.
“I immediately observed both to be intoxicated. In explaining the rules and regulations to the pair, both were uncooperative and obstinate, with the female stating several times, ‘Well, just cite me.’ ”
Hunter’s report said as he was preparing a citation, Julie Mall was “agitated and loud, standing in the middle of the street and interfering with passing vehicular and pedestrian traffic.” He said he ordered her to move out of the road and she refused, the Observer reported.
“In attempting to secure the custody of the female, same dropped to the ground and began screaming and flailing around, refusing to surrender her hands or obey officer commands,” Hunter wrote. “Same was physically assaultive and required me to initiate ground control to secure her custody.”
Scott Mall was returning from the cottage when the ruckus began. Police told him to stand back as his wife was wrestled to the ground in the median, Hunter’s knee in her back. Mall took out his cell phone and videoed the scene, the Observer reported.
Scott Mall said no one was drunk. Other Bald Head officers he talked to that night, he says, were calm, courteous and professional. “It became a frightening situation,” he says. “It escalated out of control.”
Julie Mall was driven to Bald Head Island’s public safety office. Mall said she was not told what she was being charged with, nor was she given any sobriety tests. Hunter and another officer took her to the ferry, where about 30 passengers were waiting for the next boat, the Observer reported.
When it arrived, she says she was led aboard barefoot—she lost her flip-flops in the struggle—for the trip to the Brunswick detention center. Hunter told Magistrate Brock Holmes Jr. that Mall failed to surrender her hands to be handcuffed, was intoxicated and disruptive, blocked traffic and challenged him to a fight. Hunter charged her with resisting a public officer, intoxicated and disruptive and misdemeanor child abuse. Mall was released the next morning on $1,000 bond, the Observer reported.
Mall said she was examined by a doctor on the island, who said she suffered whiplash-like injuries, the Observer reported.
Charles Baldwin, Bald Head Village’s attorney, said the village declined to comment on the specifics of the case because of the possibility of further legal action. But he gave this statement to the Observer:
“The village takes seriously the safety of its residents and visitors, including children, particularly in the operation of motor vehicles. Officers on scene acted appropriately and in their best judgment for the safety of the child and also of the adults involved.”
In a follow-up statement, the village added: “As to the specific incident involving Julie Mall, the village believes the arrest report, which is a public record, speaks for itself. The village denies any allegation that she was treated anything other than as professionally and courteously as the circumstances would allow.”
Mall returned to Brunswick County on Aug. 20, 2015, for trial on the charges. Officer Hunter, who had been subpoenaed, did not appear. Without a witness, the state dismissed the case. But the charges could be reinstated by the district attorney’s office any time up to two years after the offense, under N.C. law, the Observer reported.
A 54-year-old man was charged this week with beating a Canada goose to death with a golf club on the 18th hole of Sunset Valley Golf Course in Pompton Plains, N.J., NJ.com reported.
William Mitchell, of Parsippany, was charged on May 17 with killing waterfowl two days earlier following an investigation by the Morris County Park Police and the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Lt. Steve Ferraioli with the Morris County Park Police confirmed.
Mitchell hit his ball in the direction of a nest that was being protected by a male goose, and, during an altercation, beat the goose with his club as he was trying to retrieve his ball, Ferraioli said. After “flopping on the ground,” the goose ended up in the pond, he said.
According to Ferraioli, Mitchell confessed to beating the goose and faces a fine for killing waterfowl out of season, NJ.com reported.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.