Child's stare sparks restaurant argument

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A College Park woman was charged with disorderly conduct after an argument at an Alpharetta restaurant that started because another customer's 5-year-old daughter was staring at her, police said.

The incident happened Oct. 1 at the McDonald's on North Point Parkway, according to an Alpharetta police incident report.

Ken Garrison told police that while he and his daughter were eating in a booth, Nicole Gomez, 39, became angry because the 5-year-old was looking over the back of the bench at her.

According to the report, Gomez "told Garrison that he needed to control his daughter because she was ‘[expletive] with her.' "

Told that she was being overly sensitive, Gomez "called Garrison a bitch and then moved to a booth further away," the report states.

Garrison told police that when he later went to refill his drink, he stopped by Gomez's booth and again told her that she was being overly sensitive, and Gomez then told him to "get out of my face, bitch."

As Garrison turned to leave, Gomez threw ice and a drink from a cup at him, according to the report, and he then asked the manager to call police.

Alpharetta police Officer J.P. Robinson wrote in the report, "I spoke with Gomez, who stated she was upset because the little girl was looking over the back of the bench and thought that Garrison was telling her to do it."

The officer also spoke with a McDonald's employee at the front counter who "stated she did not hear any of the cursing but did see Garrison at Gomez's table. She heard Gomez tell Garrison to please go away and leave me alone three times."

Gomez at first denied cursing, according to the report, but later admitted she called Garrison a "bitch" and used another expletive loud enough to be heard by other customers and by Garrison's daughter.  She was cited for disorderly conduct and released.

In 1998, Gomez was sentenced to six years in prison on child cruelty charges after pleading guilty to abandoning her newborn daughter in a Dumpster at the Clayton County apartment complex where she was living at the time. The baby survived, and Gomez was released from prison in 2002.